Vandread: Hearts Desire
by IdiAmeanDada
Summary: Hibiki Tokia is feeling underappreciated by most of the ladies on board the Nirvana, and over-appreciated by one in particular. As he seeks solitude, he is presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. Will he take it? What will the consequences be if he does?
1. Getting away from it all

-1-

Hibiki Tokia has had enough. The women on the _Nirvana _were infuriating! Whenever he tried to help Meia, she would yell at him. Same thing for Barnette! Whenever he was around Jura, she would chase him around trying to get is 'seed', whatever the hell that means. Whenever he plays cards with Gascogne, she would win! And Dita, whenever he tried to get away from her, she would find him and bug him about coming to her room. He had made a promise, and he would fulfill it, he just wasn't going to do it until he knew what they were going to talk about.

Right now, he was wandering the halls of the old section of the ship that used to be the male battleship _Ikatzuchi_, trying to clear his head. He enjoyed doing this from time to time, partly because this was usually one of the last places Dita would look for him. As he comes to a T intersection, he slicks back his spiky hair, trying to decide which way to turn.

From down the hall, he hears a familiar voice. "Mr. Alien, are you down there?"

_Dammit, she found me already?_ In a panic, he ducks down the left hallway and plasters himself against the wall. Cautiously, he peeks back around the corner, expecting to see the redhead running down after him.

The hallway is empty.

_Was I imagining it? _Lord knows he had imagined it before. Sometimes he even heard it in his sleep. He lets out a sigh of relief and starts to relax. He then peeks around the corner again. To his surprise, he sees Dita is already halfway down the corridor. _Man she moves fast._

"Oh Mr. Alien! Are you in here?" Dita calls out as she pauses to peek into a door halfway down the hall.

Panicking, he looks around frantically for an escape. He can't go right, that would take him across the intersection. Dita would surely see him then. Making his decision, he starts slinking down the hall, keeping his back to the wall as he goes. He reaches a door, pressing his back against it, he keys the control pad. Nothing happens.

_Dammit_, he curses, tapping the button again to no avail. He can see Dita's shadow approaching the intersection he came from. Glancing around, he sees there is another door across from him. He quickly steps across and puts his back against it as he watches the shadow grow bigger. As he keys the pad next to the door, he is relieved at first as the door starts to slide open.

That is, until he falls backwards into the dark room. He had been so focused on Dita, it did not dawn on him to take a step away rather than press against the door in an attempt to conceal himself from his pursuer. Landing on the floor with a thud, he grunts in pain. Although embarrassed, he has the wherewithal to pull his feet in as the door closes behind him, plunging his world into darkness.

He gets up on his hands and knees and crawls back in the direction of the door, banging his forehead against the bulkhead as he runs into it. He can not see anything at all. Cursing, he begins to feel for the door. After a few seconds, he finds it and begins to grope along the sides, looking for an internal control panel. After what seems like an eternity, he finally finds what he is looking for. He can feel a number of buttons, but as he cannot see, he cannot tell what they do. Saying a short prayer, he blindly punches the middle one, hoping that it was not the one to open the door.

To his delight, the lights come on. Quickly, he looks at the control panel and hits the button to lock it. From the other side of the door, he hears that voice again.

"Mister…oh, this one's locked. Oh well," says Dita.

Hibiki lets out a sigh of relief as he hears her move on. He waits for what seems like an eternity, but she never returns. It is not like her to double back, but he was not taking any chances.

As he sits, contemplating his next move, he glances around. The light in the room is dimmer than normal due to lack of maintenance, but he can still make out a number of boxes stacked on top of each other a few feet away. "This must be an old storage closet," he says to himself as he stands. Curiosity getting the better of him, he steps to the first box and opens it. Reaching in, he pulls out a book. On the cover, he sees a huge, wedge shaped starship. In the foreground, he sees what appears to be a white, sleek looking vanguard. The design is much truer to the human form that any vanguard design he has ever seen.

"Macross," he repeats to himself as he starts thumbing through the pages. He stops on a particular page showing what appears to be some sort of winged craft. It is obviously designed for atmospheric flight. Somehow it looks familiar, though. He quickly glances to the vanguard on the cover, then back to the plane. The nose of the plane is the same as the chest plate! Intrigued, he digs in deeper. "Valkyrie," he says to himself after finally finding what the machine is called. As he looks through he finds the transformation sequence. On one panel, he sees the male pilot pull a handle down, which initiates the transformation from the airplane to the robot…no, "Battroid mode," he sounds out as he reads.

He begins flipping through the pages again. Battles between the battroids and giant pods with legs, battles between the huge, wedge shaped warship and even larger, organic looking monster ships. "This is cool!" he muses to himself as he continues to scan through the pages. Then, something catches his attention.

Hibiki's eyes widen as he processes what he sees. A tall man with blond hair is walking alongside a dark skinned woman with short hair that hugs her scalp. Furrowing his brow, he looks closer and see that…. "_WHAT? Their holding hands?" _Shocked, he turns the page. The man says something to her that causes her to stop, face him and place her hand on his cheek. Their faces draw closer to each other. Hibiki begins to sweat as he sees the end result. The two are interlocked, hands around each other in a close, intimate hug. _Ok, that's not so bad, but what are they_… "Their lips are together?" Agast at what he sees, he reflexibly flings the book away.

"Is that what men and women do when they are…..together?" he asks no one in particular. "No way, that's just gross!" he says as he shakes his head, trying to clear the image from his mind.

With trepidation, he reaches into the box and pulls out another book. On the cover, he sees a girl wearing a frilly dress. Her long white hair flows down her back, in much the same way the redhead's does. Cursing to himself for thinking of her, he moves to toss the book aside when he notices something. "What's going on with her ears?" Looking closely, instead of an ear, he sees a small, two tone, triangular box. The pink and white object does not look like it serves any function. Intrigued, he reads the title before he starts, "Chobits."

As he flips through the pages, he catches references to human shaped personal computers and how the main character is generally something of a dunce and a tool. "The other book was at least exciting," he says to himself as he turns the page.

His heart skips a beat at what he sees. The main character…_Hideki is it?..._is asleep on a mat on the floor WITH THE FEMALE FROM THE COVER? Hibiki stares at the scene in horror. They were not doing anything other than sleeping, but just the fact that they were together like that scared the living daylights out of him. "Is this what Dita wants?" he asks himself, then cursed for thinking of her again.

He quickly stuffs the book back in the box and closes the lid. Shaking his head to clear the second image from his mind, he picks it up and moves it to the side, vowing to never look in that box again.

After recovering from the shock of what he saw in the two books, he starts opening more boxes. His heart sinks a little when the next two boxes he finds are simply more of the same. He sets those aside with the first one. The next box is filled with books as well, but these are different.

As he looks at them, he reads their titles; "How to Win Friends and Influence People, Going Steady for Dummies, Kelly's Blue Book…..hey, what's this?" The next book he pulls out has the picture of food, lots of food! Dishes of all kinds grace the cover, reminding him that he is a little hungry. "Cooking for Him," he reads from the cover as he opens the book. Throughout the pages, he sees dish after yummy dish. And to his delight, instructions on how to make each one! "This would be good for…." He shakes he head, then presses his right fist into his temple. He's thinking of her again.

He lays the book by the door, then turns to another box. This one contains what appear to be children's toys. He pulls out small vehicles then, when he starts manipulating them, transform into robots, much like the machines in the Macross book he was looking at earlier. "Very cool!" he muses to himself as he play fights a wheeled vehicle/robot against an air vehicle/robot. Smiling to himself, he puts them back into the box and moves it to the side.

The next couple of boxes are pretty boring. Dishes, writing utensils, papers of all sorts. He is about to give up and leave when he opens the next box. The contents are pretty pedestrian, cositing mostly of a what appear to be antique computer equipment. What catches his attention is a small, rectangular box looking device. Not sure what draws him to it, he picks it up for a closer look. On it's sides are a number of different sized ports, probably to hook up to power or to the computer that's in the box with it, as well as some buttons.

He notices that there is a hinge on one side. Slowly, he opens it like a clam. On the bottom section that is exposed, he sees four rows of three buttons with numbers on them, arranged in sequential order from 0 to 9. In addition, two of the buttons have strange symbols on them. Above that, on the upper section that he flipped up, is a black screen covered with clear glass. Just below that are two buttons, one green with a crescent shaped device, concave side up. The other is red with the same shape, concave side down. Not expecting anything, he presses the red button.

To his surprise, the device activates, almost causing him to drop it on the floor as it begins to vibrate in his hand. He stares at it in fascination as it goes through its boot-up up process. The screen flashes and then it talks.

"_You've got mail!_"

Hibiki looks at it, puzzled by what it said. "I've got…..male?" he repeats. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" The phone does not respond. Instead, it flashes a message on the screen over and over. _No Service_.

_This must be some type of communication device! _Playfully, he brings the device up to his year. "Hey you! Its Hibi…" He immediately jerks the device away and slaps his forehead with his free hand. Dragging it down across his face, he curses again for thinking of her. "Why can't I get her out of my head?"

He starts to close the device, but then an absurd idea strikes him. He opens it back up and randomly starts pressing buttons on the keypad. As he does so, the numbers that he pushes begin to appear on the screen. After the twelfth number, he notices that the green button is now lit up. He presses it and then holds the phone to his ear.

And hears a ringing noise. Its feint, but its unmistakable. However, he is even more surprised when he hears the ringing stop, immediately followed by a click. Then be begins to hear a feint voice, almost as if it were off in the distance. He strains to hear, but can't make out the words. Then, the voice gets louder.

"_Turn the phone around, you moron!"_

Startled and almost dropping the phone again, he does as the voice says. Still in shock that the thing is actually working, he brings it back up to his ear. "H-h-h-ello?" he stammers.

"_Ah, much better!" _replies the gravely but unmistakably female voice._ "Let's start over. You have reached the 'You can make a wish!' Foundation. You, after careful consideration, have been granted one wish of any kind!" _

"Yeah, right, and my grandpa's a moisture farmer!" scoffs Hibiki.

He is about to close it again when the voice on the phone replies; "_Oh, you don't get off that easy, Hibiki Tokai! This type of thing requires a personal visit. I will be there shortly!"_

"How the hell…." exclaims Hibiki, but is cut off as the phone lets out a strange beeping noise. The screen on the phone turns red and begins to glow. Stepping back, he trips over a box on the floor and falls backwards, dropping the phone in the process. It lands on the ground in front of him, screen side up.

The red glow begins to intensify as what appears to be black smoke covers the floor around it. The red light becomes so bright that it reaches the ceiling. Then, suddenly, a small form appears to squeeze out of the screen. As it comes through, it begins to grow. Hibiki cannot believe his eyes as a blond woman appears in front of him. As she reaches full size, the lights and smoke begin to dissipate.

Frightened beyond belief, he is finally able to get out, "Who the hell are you?"

The blond woman looks down at him with her hands on her hips and grins, baring her teeth. Are those fangs? "I am Mara! Demon First Class, Second Category, Limited License! I am here to grant you one wish!" She begins to laugh maniacally as Hibiki passes out.

* * *

A/N:Welcome to my very first PUBLISHED (NOW REVISED!) fanfic, a Vandread/Oh My Goddess crossover! Who'd a thunk it? Just like most of you, I get all kinds of funny ideas in my head about continuations, crossovers, etc. I have written 2 other stories for Vandread, but have not published them yet. This story got in my head and just needed to be told first!

Yes, I know Mara is unlimited license. This is not our Mara, this is the Mara of the future.

A/N2: For those of you that have read this story before the revisions I made, it is basically the same. I just combined some chapters that made more sense together and fluffed up a few things.


	2. Is this Hibiki's wish?

-2-

She opens her eyes and smiles. It's a new day. Groggily, she raises her arms above her head and yawns as she stretches. She then gets up and rolls up her futon, placing it in its customary place in the bottom of her closet. She then walks over to her makeup stand and kneels in front of it. Picking up a brush, she begins to brush out her long, brunette hair.

Satisfied, she returns to the closet and looks for something to wear. Something light, as it will be warm, and today is laundry day. Pulling out a yellow, paisley sundress, she slips it on and moves to the door. Sliding it open carefully, she slips out, being careful to not make too much noise. As she silently walks down the hall, she runs her fingers along one particular door and smiles, listening to the soft snoring of the man within.

_What shall we have for breakfast today, my love?_

By the time she gets to the kitchen, she already knows. She grabs too pots and places them on the burners. Humming quietly as she goes, she pours water into one and starts the burner underneath. She pours some stock in the other. She then goes to the supply room and gets some rice, tofu, and vegetables. Returning to the stove, the water is starting to boil. She places a steam basket on top of the water pot and then pours in the rice.

With the rice started, she lights the fire under the stock and then goes about the task of chopping up the vegatables and tofu. When she is done, she pours the mixture into the stock pot as it starts to bubble. Adding some spices to the mix, a wonderful aroma starts to fill the kitchen.

Satisfied that things are progressing as they should, she steps back into the hall and goes to the room she passed earlier. Listening through the paper walls, she can hear that he is still asleep.

"Keiichi, it's almost time for breakfast," announces Belldandy, slowing sliding the door open to peek inside. "Keiichi?"

XXX

Outside of a large Buddhist temple, a white and red robot with a huge, bulbous head, is patrolling the grounds. Banpie, created by the goddess Skuld, is programmed to protect the compound from all comers, be they demon or door to door salesman.

As he finishes his latest patrol, he hears two people, a man and a woman, scream at the same time from within the temple. He pauses for a second and looks in that direction. His eyes flash momentarily, then he continues on to start his next patrol.

Things like this are common in the Morisato household. Unless they call for him, he has learned not to intervene.

XXX

At the sound of her sister's scream, Urd is wide awake. Throwing off the covers, she flies out of the room in a flash, nearly taking the door with her. As she rounds the corner she sees her sister standing wide eyed in front of Keiichi's room, her hands over her mouth.

She gives her sister a questioning look. All Belldandy can do is point. Urd walks up stealthily and opens the door the rest of the way and peeks in, expecting to see Keiichi had been turned into some kind of monster. Instead, on the other side of the room, cowering against the opposite wall, is a man (more like a boy) that is definitely not Keiichi Morisato.

Before Urd can say anything, Skuld comes up behind her. "Is Keiichi touching Big Sis again?" she yells, tossing something into Keiichi's room. The boy looks down at the black orb with wires coming out if it as it lands in front of him, mouth agape. Before anyone can do anything, the Skuld bomb explodes in his face. As the smoke clears, the now singed and blackened boy keels over, face first onto the floor while muttering something about how much he hates women.

"Oops, sorry!" says Skuld, embarrassment all over her face.

"Well, that's one way of doing it," quips Urd.

Belldandy composes herself. "I hope that Keiichi is back soon so we can figure out what's going on." She gestures to Skuld and they both move in to help the unconscious boy.

Urd glances at her sister. "Do you really think that's what's going on?"

Belldandy looks back at Urd as she and Skuld drag the boy back to the futon. "I don't know, I….." She trails off, a worried look on her face.

Urd takes a closer look at the boy. He is definitely a few years younger that Keiichi, He has long, jet black, spikey hair that juts straight up over his forehead. His orange jumpsuit, currently singed and dirty, looks more like a uniform than sleepwear.

"There is something off here," comments Urd as she gives the boy a second once-over with some magic.

Having finished dragging the boy back to the futon, Belldandy and Skuld turn him onto his back. "I noticed it as well, that's what surprised me so much," says Belldandy. She wipes some of the grime off his forehead and then turns to Skuld, "Go to the bath and bring me a pail of warm water, a washcloth, and some soap."

"Right!" exclaims Skuld as she jumps up and darts out the door.

Urd comes up to her sister and places her hand on her shoulder. "What are we going to do?"

"Well," replies Belldandy, "when I first saw him, I sensed that he was genuinely surprised to see me as well. I got the impression that he was in a completely new environment, one he was not expecting. I also sensed no malice." She starts to unbutton his tunic. "Help me get his clothes off so I can wash them for him. If we make him more comfortable, he will probably be more likely to tell us what he knows."

XXX

He wakes up with a start and sits straight up. _Where the hell am I?_ He looks around and sees that he is still not in his familiar prison cell turned bedroom that he shares with the other men. "So it wasn't a dream," he says to himself as he presses the palm of him hand into his temple.

Checking for guards and an escape route, he realizes that the door to the room he is in is slightly open. Looking around, he sees that the walls and the door don't appear to be solid. Instead, they consist or a wooden latticework that holds square pieces of paper instead of the metal walls he is used to. It looks more inviting than sinister.

Crossing his arms across his chest, he realizes something is missing. _Where are my clothes?_ Instead of the uniform he normally wears, he only has on his black t-shirt and his smiley face boxers. Near panic, he glances around and is relieved to see his clothes folded neatly on the floor at the head of the futon he is on. On top of it is a slip of paper. He picks it up and opens it.

_"Please accept our apologies, we would be delighted if you would join us for breakfast."_

_A woman apologizing?_ Other than that annoying redhead, he rarely heard that. Intrigued, he puts his clothes on and opens the door. On the wall across the hall, he sees an arrow pointing to the right. Shrugging, he turns and moves in that direction. As he walks, the smell of food tickles his nose. Realizing he is famished, he reaches a door with a note on it. _"In here."_

He pauses for a second, collecting himself. He then slides open the door. Inside, kneeling around a small table, he sees three women. The one directly opposite him gestures to the open seat in front of him. She is the long haired brunette he first saw earlier wearing a brightly colored dress and an apron.

She smiles at him, completely disarming him, "Please, sit down."

As he steps into the room and sits down cross-legged at the table, he looks at the other two women. The one on the left is considerably younger than the other two, possibly younger than him. She has black hair past her shoulders and is wearing a red and white dress. The one on the right is about the same age as the brunette. She has darker skin than her companions, with long silver-white hair and is wearing a white silk pants outfit. She seems more aware of herself than the others, making him uncomfortable. All three of them have strange, blue marking on their cheeks and forehead.

"Ok, where the hell am I and who are you?" he demands.

"He certainly gets to the point," comments the white haired woman.

The Brunette smiles, "My name is Belldandy, and these are my sisters." Gesturing to the woman on his right, she calls her Urd. Gesturing to the younger one, she calls her Skuld. "You are in our home in Nekomi, Japan. Would you like some rice and miso soup, Mister….?"

"Tokia," he replies. "Hibiki Tokia."

XXX

Mouths agape, Skuld and Urd watch in amazement as Hibiki finishes up his sixth helping of soup and rice. Belldandy fixed some fish to go with it earlier, but that has been long since devoured. Her cooking reminded Hibiki of…..Nope, not going to think of her right now.

"Man, this is awesome!" he proclaims as he plows into his seventh bowl.

"He sure has a healthy appetite," says Urd as she places her elbow on the table and rests her chin on it, seemingly bored.

"Not very good manners, though," comments Skuld.

When he finishes with the bowl, he stacks it precariously on top of the others in front of him. He stretches his arms above his head and yawns slightly. "Well ladies, I've enjoyed your 'hospitality'," putting a sarcastic bite on the last word, "but I really must be getting back to my ship."

"Oh! So you are in the Navy?" asks Belldandy.

Hibiki frowns in confusion, "Navy?"

"Cool!" exclaims the younger sister Skuld, "what's the name of your ship? What class is it? Is it in aircraft carrier?" Stars in her eyes, she leans towards Hibiki, "I heard the Nimitz class from America is awesome!"

"Yeah, not sure what you mean by aircraft carrier," stammers Hibiki, leaning away from her and glancing around for an escape route. "My ship's name is the Nirvana and it's a starship."

Skuld jerks back, a confused look on her face. "A starship? It's a little early to build those yet."

Hibiki looks to his right as he feels a presence. Urd is now leaning towards him. Hibiki can't help but notice the buttons on her silk blouse are not buttoned all the way. "I knew there was something special about you," she says in his ear. She then leans back. "Skuld, dear, would you happen to have that person….checker…thingy?"

At first puzzled, Skuld realizes what she is talking about. "You mean the Aura Checker 3000? Yep! Got it right here!" She starts rifling through her pockets, looking for the device. As she does so, a black orb with wires on it bounces out onto the floor.

Hibiki gasps, then turns and starts to scramble to the door. He feels pressure on his leg as he realizes Urd has grabbed him by the ankle. He cusses as she drags him back to the table.

Skuld quickly scoops up the device. "Oh, sorry! It's safe, that one was not activated!" she announces as she stuffs it back into her pocket.

"Keep those damn things away from me!" yells Hibiki, still trying to get away. Before he can do anything, Urd stands, dragging him up and holding him by the ankle above the floor. _Man she is strong!_ "Dammit, let me go!"

"Urd, let him go." says Belldandy calmly.

"Not until he agrees to sit quietly and talk some more," she replies. Holding Hibiki up higher, she looks into his eyes. "We still need to get to the bottom of what's going on here!"

"You idiot! I don't know anything!" protests Hibiki, still struggling against her grip.

"Calm down, we believe you!" sooths Urd. Still wary, Hibiki stops struggling. "But we still have some questions that may help the situation."

Crossing his arms across his chest, Hibiki says "Fine!" With that, Urd lowers him down to the ground, releases him and sits back down. He turns over and sits back at the spot he was in.

"See-ya!" he yells as he quickly gets up and bolts out the door, leaving Urd and Skuld in shock. _That was too easy!_ As he rounds the corner, he hears the one called Belldandy shout something.

_"Heed my will, o spirit of air. All act as one, and one as all. Now rise great wind and return the man to where he belongs!"_

He reaches the front door and throws it open. As soon as he does, he is hit in the face by an invisible force. Swirling all around him, he realizes that some sort of tornado has formed and has picked him up. He struggles as it carries him back down the hall the way he came. Around the corner and back into the room with the three women, it dissipates, depositing him back at the table he was before.

"We have some questions for you and I would appreciate it greatly if you would stay and answer them truthfully," says Belldandy calmly.

Still in shock at what just happened, Hibiki can only manage a smile. "Ok," he says, quietly.


	3. Ah! I'm Lost Without My Goddesses!

-3-

Sitting in a chair, Keiichi Morisato puts his elbows on the table in front of him and presses the tips of his fingers into his temples. _Its official, this is the worst day of my life._

First, he had woken up in a strange bed, in what appeared to be a prison cell. Then he was accosted by a bald guy in a brown uniform and chased by some crazed redhead that insisted he knew where someone named 'Mr. Alien' was. Finally he was caught by a bunch of women with strange laser, ring, thingies. And through all this, there has been no sign of Belldandy.

Now, he is sitting in what can only be described as an interrogation room straight out of one of the police dramas that are so popular on TV. He is tired, hungry, and angry as the questioning has been going on for hours now.

He glances up at the woman sitting across the table from him. She has short, light blue hair, and is wearing a strange piece of jewelry on the left side of her head that comes around from the back and circles her eye. Was Meia her name? He could not remember. All he knew was that she may have been his age, but she was tough beyond her years. She was staring fiercely at him now, and that scared him.

"Mister Morisato," she spits out with as much disdain as possible. "Look at it from our perspective. Last night, Hibiki Tokia went to bed in the bunk you were found in. This morning, you were there. I'm sorry, but I just can't see any way that you could be so completely oblivious to what's going on!" She forms her fingers into a temple and covers her mouth, waiting for a response.

"Look, I told you," he starts again, drawing out his words as he would if he were speaking to a five year old. "Last night, I went to bed in my room. My room is in a Buddhist temple in Nekomi, Japan." He pauses and sits back in his seat, then finishes. "And this morning, I woke up in this hell hole!"

Already furious, Meia jumps out of her seat and slams both hands down on the table. "WHERE IS HIBIKI TOKIA!" Keiichi reflexably tries to lean away from her. She looks as if she is going to come over the table and throttle him, but is interrupted by a tapping noise. They both turn towards the large mirror on the wall to Keiichi's left, then back to each other.

Meia sighs angrily as she sits back down in her chair. She turns and enters something into the computer console on her right, then gets up and rounds the desk. Keiichi cowers in the chair as she comes past him, glaring at him the entire way. When she reaches the door behind him, she taps on the glass window in the center. The door opens and she begins to leave.

"We're not finished yet," she warns as she closes the door behind him.

Keiiche slumps back down onto the table, covering his head in his hands. He cannot believe his bad luck today. He understood that they were having a hard time believing him. He would have as well if he were in their position. But he had told them all that he knew, there was nothing else to give. Yet this Meia person seemed to want to get it out of him anyway.

He crosses his arms on the table and places his head on top, facing the mirror. They were surely behind that mirror discussing what they were going to do with him next. It was only a matter of time until…

All at once, Keiichi noticed that the mirror began to change. Jumping up out of his chair, he watches as it takes on the qualities of liquid metal. Rings of ripples form in it as if someone had dropped a rock into a lake. Then it turns white with light. Without warning, a familiar form with blue and gold robes and flowing brown hair emerges from the light, reaching for him. As he gawks at the beautiful woman that now stands before him, he hears a thud from the other side of the desk.

"Ouch!" says the dark skinned, silver haired woman as she stands, rubbing her head. "Why did they have to put that screen so close to the wall!"

"Urd?" he says, looking at the goddess in surprise, "Belldandy!" he continues looking back at the woman he loves standing beside him. "How did you…"

He is interrupted as Belldandy cries out "Keiichi!" and throws her arms around him, hugging him tighter than he had ever felt. He slips his arms around her and holds her as she begins to sob in his arms.

"Hey, what's this all about?" he asks.

"I've missed you so much," she replies through her sobbing.

"Missed me, we just saw each other yesterday!" he says, smiling, stroking her hair.

"Not from our perspective," says Urd as she comes up beside him. "In Earth time, it's been over 400 years."

Before he can react, Belldandy lifts her head off his shoulder and grabs his head with both hands. Looking lovingly into his eyes, she leans in and begins to kiss him. As their lips interlock, he can feel the love and loneliness flow through him. When she finally releases, she puts her head back on his shoulder, still holding him tightly.

"Four hundred years? What happened?" he stammers, still trying to recover from the shock.

"All I can say is that we knew this was coming, and The All Mighty has given us permission to be here," replies Urd. "Past that, we can only say in the vaguest of terms so that we do not upset the past. If we tell you anything that could change how decisions are made, then the effect to this universe could be catastrophic."

"Urd, I know you are the Goddess of the Past and all, but if I am here, then how can it hurt the past?" asks Keiichi.

Urd looks at him with a hopeful look. "If we succeed in sending you back, your knowledge could alter things."

All at once, the door to the room bursts open, three guards with strange looking rifles rush in and surround the trio. Belldandy releases Keiichi, turns and stands between him and the new arrivals, shielding him. Urd comes up and stands to her left with her hands on her hips.

As they face off, Keiiche hears a voice. "Well, well, well, what have we here?" He looks over Belldandy's shoulder and sees an elderly woman come up from behind one of the guards. She is wearing brown robes that cover her from head to toe. He had not seen her before, but he could tell she was obviously someone of great importance here. "First we lose one of our crewmates, gaining this stowaway. Now, as if out of thin air, we have two more." As she comes up to the side of the closest guard, more come in from behind her, including Meia, who is staring right at him. "Must be our lucky day!"

"We have only come to assist and guide Mr. Morisato, hopefully back to where he came from," says Belldandy. Keiichi is surprised by the force in her voice.

"We have no quarrel with you, we will not harm you if you let us leave in peace," adds Urd.

"Ha, I'm not sure where you get your bravado or where you came from," says the elderly woman. "But here, we go by my rules." With that, she gestures towards them, and the guards move in.

"I don't think that's a good idea, guys," says Keiichi, but he is too late.

Belldandy lowers her head and brings her hands together as if holding a small ball. Between her fingers, energy starts to crackle, the light illuminating her face. Her guardian angel Holy Bell emerges from her back. Her wings spread out and almost touch the walls on either side of the room. Belldandy begins to chant; "_Instruments that protect, instruments that kill, I call upon the spirits of war and metal to heed my call. Smite these weapons from their hands and send them to oblivion!"_

To the shock of the guards, their weapons begin to glow in their hands, then disintegrate into nothingness. They all gawk at Belldandy and the light she is radiating. To Keiichi's surprise, she is not done.

"_As Goddess of the element of Wind, I call upon you! Heed me!" _As she finishes, she throws her hands out from her chest towards the people in front of them. A howling wind forms from behind her and rushes past, slamming into their attackers, knocking them all to the floor except one.

As the wind subsides, Urd steps up. "Oh sister, you are too nice to these people. I'll teach them some REAL manners." A black orb forms around her hand. She raises it above her as if she is going to throw it at them. "_I am Urd, daughter of the Devine and the Ruler of Demonkind, I summon….."_

"WAIT!" cries out the elderly woman, the only one that was not knocked down by Belldandy's wind. Urd chokes back the last word of her spell, staying her hand but leaving it cocked.

"Ok, we get it," continues the old lady, obviously relieved. "My, that's quite the display of power there, ladies. But I think you misunderstand our purpose here." She steps forward, raising her hands slightly and showing her palms. "We are only trying to figure out what happened to our crewmate, a male by the name of Hibiki Tokia. As you have come to rescue this one, I no longer believe that he had anything to do with it." She raises her hands and points to Belldandy and Urd. "I don't believe you did either, but I do think you know what's going on. We need to know." She lowers her hands and waits for one of the goddesses to reply.

Urd puts her hand on Belldandy's shoulder and winks at her. "I'll handle this," she says as she steps forward. Keiichi breathes a sigh of relief.

XXX

An hour later, Urd is sitting in a large, white walled conference room. At the head of the table sits the elderly lady, who calls herself Mango Vivian. To her left stands a tall woman with white, flowing hair. Her skin is darker than the others, and her aura is a little off from what you would expect to see in a woman. She makes a note to look into it further when she had time, but for now she ignores it. Buzam, or BC as they called her, was all business and was obviously dedicated to this ship and crew. Besides that, Urd liked her choice in attire.

To Mango's right sat a woman named Gascongne. The others called her Gasco, which seemed to annoy her to no end. Her dark brown hair flowed over her shoulders. As she chewed on a metallic stick, she had a mischievous smirk on her face that Urd found endearing. She could tell that sarcasm was not a foreign language to her.

The last woman, who sits to Gascongne's right, Urd was not so sure about. She could tell from the woman's aura that she had had a troubled life. In the very short time since she had met them, Meia was the only one that had not smiled once. Urd could understand in a way, since Belldandy had disintegrated the guard's weapons and then used the wind to knock them all down. But still, we were all friends now, sort of.

"So let me get this straight," says Mango finally. "You and the other woman, Belldandy is it?" Urd nods. "You and Belldandy are goddesses, and you are contracted to protect this Keiichi character."

"Belldandy has the contract," corrects Urd. "I stay by her side to assist them."

"Right," continues Mango. "And somehow, our Hibiki Tokia has changed places with this Keiichi, who is from 400 years in the past."

"That's about the long and the short of it," answers Urd.

"Are you from the past?" inquired BC.

"No, we are immortal. All I can say is that we have been waiting for this for quite some time, although it has come much later than we expected it to," Urd replies.

Meia shifts in her chair, locking Urd in a suspicious stare. "What do you mean, 'later than you expected?" she asks.

Urd shifts uncomfortably, realizing she had said a little too much. "Lets just say that there is more to Hibiki Tokia than you know," she says finally. The others look at each other, then back to Urd. She shugs, "He may not even know it yet, either."

BC finally speaks up. "Is there any way that you can use your powers to bring him back?"

"I don't know yet. We would like to investigate some more before we know for sure," replies BC. "If I had to guess, this may be out of our power, but we will know more later."

XXX

While Urd is in the conference room with the group's leaders, Keiichi and Belldandy wait outside. With the exception of when she was protecting him from the guards, Belldandy has felt compelled to maintain physical contact with Keiichi. Even now, as they sit waiting, she holds his hand tightly, not daring to let go, lest she lose him again.

Keiichi squeezes her hand. She raises her head off his shoulder and looks into his eyes. They are as kind and loving as she remembers from so long ago. "It's going to be alright, Bell," he says with a smile. "I'm not going anywhere."

She puts her head back down on his shoulder. "I know," she replies. "It's just been so very long. We spent most of our time waiting in heaven, so the time passed even more slowly for me."

"Wow, I can't imagine how long that must have felt like," he replies. "But the important thing is that we are here, now, together." He squeezes her hand and pulls it to his heart. "If our roles were reversed, I would try to move heaven and earth to get back to you, because you are my one and only true love."

Belldandy hears a sob, then a gulp as if the person were trying to hold it back. She looks up and sees a young girl, no more than 16 or 17 years old, sitting in a chair across from them. She is very pretty, with long red hair that nearly touches the floor where she sits. She has a forlorn look on her face, and has obviously been crying. When she realizes Belldandy is looking back at her, she quickly looks down at her hands, which are folded in her lap.

"Oh, hello, my name is Belldandy."

The girl shifts nervously in her seat, pawing at the floor with one of her feet. After a moment, "My name is Dita," replies the redhead meekly.

"Dita," says Belldandy, "why are you so sad?"

Dita looks up in surprise, then looks away. "I did not realize it was so obvious," she says sadly. "It has not been very long, but I miss him."

"You miss Hibiki?" inquires Keiichi.

Dita sniffs, then nods. Belldandy releases Keiichi's hand, gets up and walks across the room and sits down next to Dita. She places her arm around her shoulder. Almost immediately, Dita leans in to Belldandy and begins to cry. Belldandy rocks her in her arms, waiting for her to cry it out. After a few minutes, Dita sits up and looks back at Belldandy.

"Thank you," she says.

Belldandy smiles back at her. "He must be a very special person for you to feel this way for him."

"I've never felt this way about anyone in my entire life," replies Dita. She looks up in to Belldandy's eyes, placing her hand over her heart. "There were three men that we found all that time ago. He is the only one that makes my heart pound like this."

Belldandy exchanges a knowing glance with Keiichi, then wipes a tear from Dita's eyes. "I'm sure if you love him that much, you will surely see him again," she says, stroking the back of Dita's hair.

"Do you really think its love?" asks Dita.

"Of course I do. I can see the love in your eyes, in your heart, and in the aura that surrounds you," says Belldandy knowingly. "Love as pure as this can transcend space and time. It is what brought me here today."

Dita glances across the room to Keiichi, then back to Belldandy. "Oh, thank you!" she exclaims, throwing her arms around Belldandy and hugging her tightly. "I can't wait to see Mr. Alien again!"

Keiichi crosses the room and sits down in the chair next to Dita. "Yeah, that's something I was wondering about. Why have I only seen two other men?"

Dita releases Belldandy and looks at Keiichi. "Well, the men are from Taraak, and the women are from Mejere," she says, gesturing with her hands to show that one was on one side, and one on the other. "When the colonist reached these planets, the women and men were separated to their respective planets."

Keiichi's jaw drops for a second. "Wait, did you say colonists? Planets?"

"Uh huh!" confirms Dita.

Keiichi places his palms on his forehead, then uses his hands to slick back his hair, interlocking his fingers behind his head. Belldandy can see he is shocked at the revelation, and briefly considers interceding, then thinks against it. As long as the nothing specific about Hibiki or Keiichi was revealed, they were fine.

"So, before you met Hibiki, you had never seen a man before in your life?" inquires Keiichi after processing what she said.

"That's right," replies Dita cheerfully. "Men and women were raised to believe the others were evil and alien. I never believed that though, deep down." She brings her hands together over her chest in a motion of excitement. "And I was right! None of those things are true about…Mr. Alien."

As Dita paused, Belldandy worried that she might lose it again, but was relieved when she held it together. Suddenly, they hear a rumbling noise.

Keiichi grabs his stomach. "Sorry," he says sheepishly. "In all the excitement, I forgot how hungry I am."

Belldandy is about to say something when she is interrupted by the door of the conference room opening. Urd steps out and immediately crosses over to the trio.

"Belldandy, Mango would like to discuss something, and I need your assistance with it," says Urd.

"But Keiichi is very hungry, he has not eaten for a very long time," protests Belldandy.

Dita jumps up from her chair, "I can cook for him, Mr. Alien likes my cooking, I'm sure Mr. Keiichi will as well!" she exclaims excitedly.

Belldandy looks at Keiichi, torn as to whether she should leave him or not. She looks back to Dita, who is watching her expectedly. "Well, if it not too much of a burden," she says finally.

Dita reaches down and grabs Belldandy's hands and holds them together. Her excitement is palpable. "Oh thank you, Mrs. Goddess!"

"See, now that's settled," says Urd with a smile. "Come along, sis."

Dita releases Belldandy and starts for the door. Grabbing Keiichi's hand as she goes, she starts to drag him along. "I'm going to make you Mr. Alien's favorite egg rolls!"

XXX

Surrounded by yellow light and stars, a small demon stirs. He has been waiting ever since the goddesses had found Keiichi for this. The self proclaimed God of Disaster and Poverty fixes his purple ascot, and then straightens his green tunic.

"Finally, the opportunity I have been waiting for!" he exclaims with a devilish grin. "With those goddesses preoccupied, I can make the man miserable and me happier than ever!"

He flips his long white hair out of his eyes, then throws his right hand over his head. Straightening his fingers, he touches his index finger to his thumb. Waving his arm to his left, he whips it out to the right in a grand gesture.

"SACHIM!"


	4. Ah! The Consequences of a Goddess' Love

-4-

Back in the conference room, Urd stands to the side as she listens to her half-sister speak. Suddenly, she feels it, causing her to gasp, eyes wide. A feint, yet familiar pulse of energy only she and Belldandy would be attune to. Belldandy stops in mid sentence and looks at Urd.

"Did you feel that?" she inquires with a worried look.

Urd nods, scratching her chin in thought, trying to remember the last time she felt this particular pulse. Suddenly, a realization comes to her. "Senbee!" she exclaims, snapping her fingers. Belldandy's eyes widen with anxiety. She turns and bolts out the door without a word. Urd turns to the four women in the conference room, "I'm sorry, we have sensed something that may help us explain how this happened." With that, she twirls on her heels and follows her sister, leaving the rest of the occupants to look at each other in puzzlement.

XXX

As Dita leads Keiichi down the corridor, he indulges her as she prattles on, spinning fantastic stories about giant robots called Vanguards combining with these things called Dreads to form even bigger robots called Vandreads. To Keiichi, it just sounds like something out of Skuld's manga rags. It was just too fantastic for him to comprehend. Then, with a twinge of guilt, he realizes that wishing for and receiving a Goddess as your personal chaperone for the rest of your life could be seen as just as fantastic.

Suddenly, Dita stops and starts rifling through the pockets of the short mini-skirt she is wearing. "Oh dang-it!" she cries out dejectedly. "I seem to have forgotten my recipe key! I need to go to my room and get it. It's just around the corner, stay here, I will be right back!"

"Uh, ok," replies Keiichi. He did not like the idea of being left here all by himself, but it seemed safe enough. He watches as Dita leaves. _She seems like a nice kid_, he thinks to himself as he moves over to one side of the corridor and leans against one of the doors.

Suddenly, he feels the door start to slide to one side. He takes a step forward to avoid falling, and starts to turn to apologize to whoever was behind him. Before he can, two hands appear from inside the room, grab him and pull him inside.

He lands on the floor with a thud. "Ouch!" he complains, rubbing his backside. "Whats going on?"

"Oh, sorry, I must have pulled to hard," replies a sultry voice. A woman steps out of the shadows. She has flowing blonde hair and stunning looks. She is wearing a black dress that is slit down the sides from her hips to the floor, and in the front from her naval to her neck. Her breasts are nearly bursting out from the sides of the slit, much like Urd's when she is in her goddess attire. A small spurt of blood pops out of Keiichi's nose as he looks upon the stunning woman.

"I can't help but notice that you like what you see," she purrs. "My name is Jura, and this is your lucky day, big boy!"

Keiichi looks on in fear as he tries desperately to focus on Jura's face. She was indeed one of the top five most stunning women he has ever seen. But if Belldandy saw him here…

"Yeah, I don't think this is a good idea," he sputters.

Jura begins to approach him. As she does, he tries to scurry away. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to hide. "What do you mean it's not a good idea? You are new here, which means you are a free agent!"

"Free agent?!" exclaims Keiichi.

Jura poses for a second, one hand on her hip, the other holding her hair up from the back. The other side of Keiichi's nose pops. "Look, you're the new guy here," explains Jura. "Hibiki has Dita, Duela has Parfet, and Bart is chasing after BC! Now that you are here, I should be next in line!" She rushes forward and grabs Keiichi, pressing his head in between her breasts. He nearly passes out.

Recovering for just a second, he tries to push away, but his attempts are futile. "What do you want from me?" he yells.

"Why, I want to have a baby!" says Jura, giggling.

With a burst of strength, Keiichi frees himself from the blonde beauty. "I don't even think so!" he cries and tries to jump across the bed in an attempt to escape. Unfortunately, Jura is slightly faster. She kicks out his legs from underneath him, causing him to land right in the middle. Faster than a cat, she is on top of him, straddling his hips and holding his arms down above his head.

"That's better!" she purrs. "Now, give me what I want!" With that, she leans forward and begins kissing him across his entire face.

Suddenly, there is a knock at the door. "_Keiichi, are you in there?_"

Recognizing the voice, he cries out at the top of his lungs; "BELLDANDY! HELP!"

Jura raises up and looks at him in confusion. "Who's Bell…"

Before she can finish, a blinding light shoots forth from one of the many mirrors in Jura's room. Belldandy burst forth from the mirror and alights on the floor next to the bed. Not seeing what's going on at first, she looks around frantically. "Keiichi?!"

"Belldandy! Close your eyes!" yells out Keiichi, but it's too late as she locks in on him and the stunned Jura. Desperatly, he tries to explain. "It's not what you think! She…" He stops himself. He can see that it is already too late. A blank expression crosses Belldandy's face as she tenses up. He tries to get Jura's attention, but she is so shocked at what she saw that she cannot move.

"We should take cover," he deadpans because he knows what will happen next.

XXX

Outside, Urd leans against the wall next to the door to Jura's room, a knowing smile across her face. She looks up to see the redhead from before come flying around the corner.

"I found it, Keiichi!" she exclaims, but comes to a screeching halt at the sight of elder goddess. Urd brings her finger to her lips to shush the girl as she listens to what's going on inside. Seconds later, the three younger women from the conference room round the corner.

They all stop as Urd holds up her palm to them. "Whats going…" starts Meia, but stops when Urd shushes her as well.

Crossing her arms across for chest from as moment, she thinks to herself; _It's been a long time since I have seen this!_ Giddy with anticipation, she raises her hand and holds out three fingers. She lowers them one by one as she counts down.

"Three"

"Two"

"One"

Before she can say zero, the door to Jura's room violently explodes outward, filling the room with smoke. She can hear the others coughing and sputtering as the ventilation system struggles to clear the air. As the smoke dissipates, she sighs with satisfaction. "Just like old times," she muses to herself as she turns to enter the room.

When she comes in, the first thing she sees is Belldandy. She is shaking her head to clear it the fog she usually experiences immediately after one of her Jealousy Storms. Standing in the middle of what used to be a bed is a blonde women with a very skimpy dress on, holding on to Keiichi. Both have blank expressions on their faces and are covered in soot.

"Is she yours?" says the blonde, meekly.

"You can say that," replies Keiichi, who promptly falls forward.

"Keiichi!" yells Belldandy , who runs forward and catches him before he hits the ground. She cradles him in her arms, stroking his singed hair. "I'm so sorry, I know she was holding you against your will, I just couldn't control it!"

Urd and Belldandy are startled as the blonde crashes down on the remnants of the bed in front of them. "I'm so sorry!" exclaims Belldandy again.

Urd hears a gasp from behind as Meia and Gascongne enter the room. "What happened here?" exclaims Meia.

Urd turns to them. "It seems that this one here tried to seduce young Keiichi here."

Gascongne snorts, and crosses her arms across her chest. "That's one hell of a jealousy streak your sister's got there," she quips. Urd knew she would like this one.

From behind the two, a green haired woman dressed in what can only be described as a blue on blue swimsuit bursts into the room. She looks around frantically at the ruined room, then rushes across the bed to the fallen blonde. "Jura! Are you ok?! Speak to me!" she pleads.

Jura, with her eyes shut, turns away from the green haired girl. "Hit the snooze button, Barnette, I don't want to wake up yet," she replies, barely coherent.

Barnette looks around at the destroyed room. All of Jura's precious mirrors have been broken, the chandelier on the ceiling in ruins. Her gaze turns to Belldandy and Urd, murder in her eyes. "What the hell did you do?"

Urd steps forward, "Serves her right for trying to steal the boyfriend of a goddess!" she replies wagging her finger at the two of them.

"I'm so terribly sorry," pleads Belldandy. "I just lose control when things like this happen. I did not mean it!"

Barnette looks as if she is going to respond, but is interrupted as Jura starts to come back around. "Ohhhhh, what happened?"

"Jura, you're alright!" exclaims Barnette with excitement.

Jura rises out of Barnette's lap, looking around groggily. "My room!" she exclaims. She shoots a look at Belldandy, then suddenly jumps up and crawls behind Barnette, using her as a shield. "Is it safe yet?"

Belldandy reaches out to Jura. "Its perfectly safe, come, I won't hurt you, let me help."

"But Belldandy!" protests Urd. "She was trying to seduce Keiichi!"

"She did not know that he was already taken, so I will not hold her responsible for her actions," replies Belldandy.

Exasperated, Urd sighs, "Same old Belldandy." She reaches down and halls Keiichi, who has finally recovered, up by the arm. She turns and ushers him, Meia, and Gascongne out the door. After making sure they are out of the way, she steps back into the room and crosses her arms, glaring at Jura. "You should feel lucky, if you had done that to my man, I would not be so charitable."

Belldandy looks up at Urd and smiles. "Oh Urd, quit teasing them." She then stands back up, looking back to Jura and Barnette. "Now don't move." She warns. They exchange worried glances.

Jura starts to protest, "Wait…" but stops short as Holy Bell emerges from Belldandy's back. "So beautiful!" she sighs, looking upon the angelic being, stars in her eyes.

Belldandy closes her eyes and lowers her head. Spreading her arms wide, she chants; _"All ye sundered by mine own wrath, hear my call. Spirits of metal, spirits of reflection, spirits of all, lend me your power and return this space to rightful form!"_

As light fills the room, Belldandy and Holy Bell begin to sing. Their voices meld into a single, angelic melody. All around them, pieces of the destruction she had brought upon Jura's room begin to levitate and come together. Broken mirrors turn into cracked mirrors which turn in to perfect mirrors. Charred and torn fabric begins to mend. Splintered wood and twisted metal become whole again. The door to the room returns to its proper position and slides closed. When the song is finished, the room is pristine.

Belldandy shakes her head as the light subsides, unsteady on her feet. Urd steps up and puts her arm around her to support her. "I got you," she says. Belldandy looks up and smiles. The door to the room opens and Keiichi runs in, followed by Gasconge, Meia, BC, and Dita. The four women stop and stare at the condition of the room, mouths agape. In front of Belldandy, Jura and Barnette are too stunned to move.

Keiichi comes up on the other side of Belldandy and puts his arm around her waist, assisting Urd in keeping her up. Belldandy releases from Urd and throws both arms around Keiichi, who reaches down under her legs and picks her up.

He takes a step towards Jura's bed, but Urd stops him. "Just a sec, still have one more thing to do." She steps behind him and puts both hands between his shoulderblades. "_The goddess calls out to that which is hidden, reveal yourself to me!" _When she finishes, she sends a short burst of energy into Keiichi's back.

She then draws her hands back from Keiichi. A globe of energy emerges from where her hands were, and floats before her.

From inside, the others can see a small figure with white, flowing hair and a green tunic. He looks back to Urd sheepishly smiles. "Mi-lady Urd! What a surprise to be blessed with your presence!"

"Yeah, whatever," replies Urd dismissively. "I will deal with you later." With that, she snaps her fingers and the globe disappears.

Keiichi looks over to Jura, "Do you mind if she rests here? She has been exerting herself quite a bit lately, she needs to rest."

Jura blinks a few times as she tries to comprehend what just happened. "Uh…um….yeah, I mean…yeah! She can rest here." Keiichi steps forward and deposits Belldandy on the bed, then lies down next to her.

Belldandy raises her head and looks at Jura with a worried face. "Did I not tidy up the room to your satisfaction?"

Jura looks back at Belldandy with a dumbfounded look. "Are you kidding?!" she exclaims. She raises her arms and begins to twirl around the room. As she does, she rattles off in rapid fire succession; "Oh my god, the mirrors are spotless and the chandelier is flawless, and oh look! my dress is clean as well, and the fabric on the walls is clean, and the bed is prestine, and no squeaking! And…"

Urd stops watching the blonde Diva dance and gush about the room and looks to her sister, who has fallen fast asleep. Laying down next to her, Keiichi looks up at Urd and gives her a thumbs up. She winks at him and then turns to the door. The four women stop watching Jura, who has now pulled Barnette in as she dances about the room, and turn their focus back to Urd. "We still have some things to discuss, no?" says Urd quietly.

Meia, is the one that finally speaks, genuine concern in her voice. "Will your sister be ok?"

"Yeah, she will be fine," replies Urd. "Once she sleeps it off, she will be right as rain!" As she moves to the door, she sees Dita looking down at the ground, looking embarrassed. "What is it?"

"Um Miss Goddess?" she says as she paws the ground with her foot. "Before Mr. Alien gets back, can one of you clean my room?"

The goddess and the other three ladies laugh as they leave the room with Dita.

XXX

As they walk down the corridor away from Jura's room, BC comes up beside Urd. "So, what was that all about?"

Urd gives BC a puzzled look, "What part are you talking about?"

BC crosses her arms across her chest as they move. "Well, I understand that you can use your powers…"

"Magic," interrupts Urd.

BC pauses, sounds out "Magic", and continues. "You can use that to manipulate your environment, but what was that you pulled out of Keiichi's back?"

"Oh, that was Senbee," replies Urd. "He calls himself the God of Disaster and Poverty, but he is really just a minor demon that gets off on causing misfortune for others. Belldandy and I felt his presence when he cast a spell on Keiichi. This whole incident was a result of his meddling."

"You mean he was controlling me?" interrupts Jura, who is walking behind them.

Urd looks back and smiles. "No, it's much simpler than that," she replies. "You're still a trollop."

"Hey!" yells Jura, but Urd ignores her.

"He only makes small changes to the environment, which diverts you from your path into a new situation that usually causes trouble." She pauses for emphasis. "He then gets some sort of perverse feedback from the negative emotions."

"Oh!" exclaims Dita, who was following behind the group. They all stop and look at her. "I left Mr. Keiichi there because I forgot my recipe key!"

Urd smiles and puts her hands on her hips. "Do you think you would have done that normally?"

Dita thinks about it for a second and then responds, "I always have my recipe key with me."

Urd stares at Dita, dumbfounded. The rest just snort in amusement. "Yep, that's our Dita!" comments Jura.

BC turns back to Urd, "So anyway…." she starts but is interrupted by a new voice.

"HEY!" yells a blue haired girl as she comes running up, her long pony tail bouncing as she moves. "Are you the one that's going to get my Hibiki back?"

Urd glances at Dita, then Jura, then back to the newcomer. _This just keeps getting better!_

"Go away Misty, the adults are talking here!" quips Jura.

Misty locks Jura in an angry stare. "Shut up, you hag! You're only after him for your own perverted reasons!"

Dita steps in to the fray. "You two need to leave Mr. Alien alone, Miss Goddess is going to clean my room so he can come visit ME!"

Urd looks on with interest. She can literally see the electricity shooting between the three as they continue squabble. She leans over to Gascogne and whispers "Are they always like this?"

Gascogne smiles and twirls her stick in her mouth. "We usually don't have all three of them together like this. It's not often you see the hens squabble over the rooster."

"Ah," replies Urd.

"BE QUIET!"

The trio freezes and looks at Meia. With her hands on her hips, he angrily stares them down. "Jura! Don't you and Barnette have some simulations to run on new Dread formations?"

Jura and Barnette snap to attention. "Yep! Sorry Chief, we'll get right on that!" replies Barnette, who grabs Jura and pulls her down the hall.

Meia turns to the newcomer. "Misty, you need to just go to your room and stay out of our way."

Misty's eyes tear up. She begins to cry as she turns around and runs down the corridor the way she came.

Meia turns to Dita. "You….go cook something for Keiichi."

Dita squeals in delight and bolts down the corridor in the opposite direction.

"I like them," quips Urd after a few moments of peace, causing BC and Meia to roll their eyes. _If I could stay, I would have so much fun here!_

BC then looks at Urd, "Now, where were we?"

XXX

Belldandy is laying in a field of green. Life stirs all around her, filling her with joy. On her back with her arms crossed behind her head, she looks up into the blue sky and sees fluffy clouds floating by. As she revels in the beauty of the scene in front of her, she notices one cloud that is out of place.

Slowly, the cloud is floating towards her. Intrigued, she stands and raises her arms to it. As it gets closer, she recognizes the aura it contains. As it makes contact with it, she is overcome with a feeling of warmth.

"Keiichi," she whispers to herself, smiling. She crosses her arms across her chest and tucks in her head, basking in the emotions that overcome her as the cloud envelops her. The love, so pure, she did not want to let it go. She looks up again to see part of the cloud form a definite shape. She reaches out as she recognizes the face of the man she loves.

_Belldandy._

"Yes my love?" she asks as she strokes Keiichi's chin.

_I have something to show you._

"What do you have to show me?" she replies.

_It's a surprise._

Below the head of Keiichi, a torso begins to form. Sprouting arms, it reaches to her. She gladly takes the hand that forms in front of her, and allows it to lead. They walk to the edge of the meadow she was laying in, to a grove of tall trees. She looks on in wonderment as the life forces she feels increase as she approaches. Around the perimeter of the forest is a thicket, covered in roses of all different kinds. She muses about how Poerth would have loved the sight.

The thicket parts, revealing a path. The cloud of Keiichi releases her hands and points down the trail.

_In there._

Belldandy nods, and enters. As she walks the path, life all around her is exploding. She enters a grove in the middle of the forest. At its center is a pool, surrounded by flat rocks. She sits down next to it and looks in. Fish of all kinds are swimming happily. She looks around, insects and birds dance, almost as if performing a ballet. The blossoms of flowers float down all around her. She looks back to the cloud of Keiichi and smiles.

"Is this what you wanted to show me?" she asks.

_Look closer._

Slightly surprised, she looks back into the pool, looking as deeply as she can. Suddenly, a white light emanates from the deep, enveloping her. The light coalesces into a sphere. She puts her hands into the water and reaches for it. When she makes contact with the smooth surface, it is comforting, yet familiar. As she pulls the sphere of light out of the water, she can see something inside of it.

She can see a female form, curled into the fetal position, her long blue hair enveloping her. As Belldandy watches, the girl in the globe raises her head and looks at her, smiling. A sudden realization comes to her. She looks back to the cloud of Keiichi. "Is that…" she starts but trails off, almost in disbelief.

_It is._

With those words, the girl tucks her head back. A strong breeze hits Belldandy, and the sphere becomes too heavy for her. She puts it back into the water, where it drops down and disappears. She looks up to see the cloud dissipating.

"Keiichi wait!" she pleads.

_Something is going to happen, and we need to be there for it. You'll see._

"What? What's going to happen?" asks Belldandy, confused.

_Something wonderful._

Still not quite comprehending, Balldandy can only ask, "What?"

_I understand your confusion. You see, it's all very clear to me now. The whole thing, it's wonderful!_

The cloud appears to wave as it dissipates completely. Belldandy reaches out to it, desperately willing it not leave. "Don't go!" she cries, but it is futile.

_See ya soon._

She drops to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably.

XXX

Waking up with a start, Belldandy sits up, eyes wide. "She's here!" she gasps, then covers her mouth as she realizes she said it out loud. She glances around and is relieved to see no one else is there except Keiichi, who is sound asleep on the bed with her. On the bedside table is a pile of dishes. She caresses Keiichi's hair lovingly and feels that he is content, which comforts her.

Bringing her hands together, she concentrates for a second. Over her shoulder, a small figure pops into existence. She lays down next to Keiicho as the new arrival, a tiny version of herself, flies up and passes through the ceiling. There, she finds cables of all finds snaking to and fro. Following the cables, she deduces that they will lead to bigger and bigger bundles until she finds what she came for.

While following a particularly large bundle, she stops. Sensing a number of people below her, she sticks her head through the floor of the crawlspace, out of the ceiling above them. Below, she sees a number of women with large spectacles running around a control room. One in particular, with two huge braided pony tails on either side of her head, is chatting with a tall man in a white lab coat. She catches part of their conversation, about something called the Peaksys Pragma, and how it acts as if it were alive.

They are standing in front of an observation window, with bluish-white light filtering through it. She stands up in the crawl space and then flies in the direction of the light. She then passes through, into a huge chamber. In the center is a gigantic glowing ball. Jagged crystals hang from the ceiling around it. A catwalk crosses the chamber just over it. She approaches the sphere and upon making contact with it, her suspicions are confirmed. _It is her!_

She strokes the sphere lovingly, causing it to pulse, which sends the women in the room overlooking it scurrying. She then pulls back as she senses Keiichi stirring back in the room they were sleeping in. She closes her eyes and concentrates for a moment, then poofs out of existence.

In Jura's room, Belldandy opens her eyes. Beside her, Keiichi is looking at her and smiling. She returns it. "Hope I did not wake you," he says.

"Not at all, it was time for me to get up anyway," she replies. _And tell Urd who I found._

* * *

A/N: This is my favorite chapter, BTW!


	5. Ah! Flashback to the Future

-5-

Stepping off the lift, Urd looks down the corridor in front of her. The lighting is more subdued and the colors are earthier as opposed to the brightness she had become accustomed to in the rest of the ship. Gascongue steps off the lift behind her just before the door closes. She had been designated her chaperone after BC and Meia were called away for other duties.

"So this is the men's part of the ship?" asked Urd.

"Yep," replies Gascongue with a smirk, "well, actually, this part was another ship called the _Ikazuchi_ by the Taraaks." She crosses her arms across her chest and smiles smugly, "It was supposed to be their greatest achievement, but we bested it pretty easily."

"Can definitely tell it was designed by men," muses Urd while still looking around. She then looks back to Gascongeu. "How did your ship and the Taraak ship get fused together?" she asks.

Gascongue twirls her stick in her mouth for a second in thought, "I'm not really completely sure. Parfet would know more than me. I just know that when the Taraaks tried to destroy this ship to keep it out of our hands, the Peaksys somehow transported us away and then merged the two ships together in to the _Nirvana_."

Urd looks around again and extends her senses, trying to detect what might of happened. She can vaguely detect an echo of some very powerful magic, but it is too disperse for her to ascertain its source. She makes a mental note to check on this further when she can. In the mean time, she has more pressing issues to attend to. She raises her hands and claps twice. In an instant, a sphere appears in front or her, a small form cowering inside.

"H-h-how can I be of service, Mon Amie?" stammers Senbee.

Urd glares at him. "You can start by telling me which way to go," says Urd while wagging her finger at him. "And I am warning you, no tricks or I will seal you up in your jar and cast it into the deepest depths of Earth's oceans, never to be seen again!"

"Oh PLEASE be merciful, Mi lady! Senbee will be true and guide you wherever it is your heart desires!" he pleads.

Urd smiles, "Well then, now that we have an understanding, tell me where the wish was made."

Senbee nods and points down the corridor, "This way, Mi lady." Urd and Gasncogne begin to follow the corridor with Senbee in the lead. Looking around, Urd can understand why the women avoid this place. The drab colors were starting to depress her. Resisting the urge to brighten things up, she soldiers on.

Finally, Senbee stops in front of a door and points. "In here is what you seek."

Urd smiles, then claps twice. The orb containing Senbee disappears. She then extends her senses into the room on the other side, but she does not detect any danger. She keys the switch and looks in as the door opens. All around the walls in the room are stacks and stacks of boxes. Some of them show signs of recently being opened. She examines one a little more closely. Her eyes widen as she recognizes the name on it. _I have to tell Belldandy!_

"What is that," asks Gascongue, pointing to something on the floor.

Shaking herself out of her revelation, she looks down at what Gascognue is pointing at and sees an old cell phone lying perfectly in the middle of the floor. Stepping over to it, she stoops down and picks it up. She can sense dark magic surrounding it.

"I have not seen one of these in millennia," replies Urd as she examines it. "They used to call these 'cell phones', partly for the technology that they used at the time. Its an old style communication device." She flips the phone open and is surprised to find it is still working. She punches some buttons, looking for the last number dialed. When she finds it, she recognizes it immediately.

"Either your Hibiki is incredibly smart or extremely unlucky," says Urd.

"Depending on who you ask, it could be either or both," replies Gascongue with a smile.

Urd returns the smile, then looks back to the phone. "Well, he somehow dialed one of Nidhogg's support centers. This would have sent a demon to him to grant him a wish."

"Wait," says Gascongue, throwing up her hands while trying to comprehend. "Nidhogg?"

Urd pauses for a moment while she thinks about how she will explain it to her. "Look, basically, everything is controlled by two huge computer systems in heaven and hell. We have Yggdrasil, and the demons have Nidhogg. Together, they are supposed to maintain a balance between all the realms, including this one."

Gascogne crosses her arms across her chest and twirls her stick in her mouth. "That was about as clear as a nebula."

Urd returns the sour look. "It's the best I can do, we are pressed for time."

Gascogne uncrosses her arms and steps closer to Urd, looking at the ancient cell phone. "So, if this thing is so old, how was it still able to communicate?"

"Well, Yggdrasil and Nidhogg were both set up to accept connections from these types of devices, even when they were out of range of communications," replies Urd.

"Ah, sort of like an emergency line?" inquires Gascongue thoughtfully.

"Exactly," replies Urd. "Ok, please step back over there, I need some space here."

Gascogne does what she is told as Urd places the phone back in the middle of the floor. Crouching, she holds her hands over it and begins to chant.

"_Echos of events in this spot do I detect. I, Urd, Goddess of the Past, command thee, reveal yourself to me!"_

As she finishes, she stands and takes a step back. A golden ring forms on the floor around the phone, ancient runes circling the perimeter. In the center, a bright light bursts forth, then subsides, replaced by an image of a boy with black spiky hair and an orange jumpsuit holding the phone to his ear.

"That's him!" gasps Gascogneu, eyes wide.

Urd watches with interest as Hibiki drops the phone. She sees the dark magic emanating from it as something teleports itself into the room. She immediately recognizes a blonde demon she knows only too well. Then, Hibiki passes out from shock as Mara laughs over him.

XXX

Coughing and sputtering, Hibiki wakes up with a start. Raising his arms up, he sees that he is now soaking wet. He then brings his arms to his chest and starts to shiver, causing ice cubes to call off his head. Looking up, he sees the thing that came out of the ancient device standing over him with a bucket in her hands and an evil smile that chills him even more.

"No sleeping! My time is important!" yells the blonde woman in a gravelly voice, bearing what he can only describe a fangs.

Anger floods him, pushing out the chill. "What the hell was that for, woman?"

The blonde steps up to him and pinches his cheek, grinning. "Oh, you're angry!" she purrs. "I like you when you're angry." She then releases him and turns away.

"Yeah I'm angry!" he yells back as he picks himself up off the ground. "Angry. Wet. And cold!"

The blonde looks back at him over her shoulder. "You're not wet," she says sarcastically as she snaps her fingers.

Hibiki looks back at her incredulously, raising his arms from his side to show her. "What do you mean I'm not…WHAT THE HELL?" He looks at his arms and notices that they are dry. He pats himself over his chest and realizes that the rest of him is dry as well. "How did you….." he trails off, not sure he wants to know. "Who are you?"

The blonde turns to face him again, pressing her fingers to her temple. "Geez, you mortals are so dense," she complains. "I already told you, dimwit, I am Mara, Demon First Class, Second Category, Limited License. I am here to grant you a wish!"

"Pfft!" lets out Hibiki, barely able to keep from busting out laughing. "Yeah, whatever," he says after composing himself, waving his hand dismissively. She was obviously sent here by the women to make fun of him, and he had had enough. This was supposed to be his sanctuary, and he was not going to allow this woman the satisfaction. He starts to the door.

Mara glowers at him as he passes. "Impudent human," she accuses and snaps her fingers.

Hibiki presses a button on the door's control panel. Nothing happens. He presses it again, to the same result. Frustrated, he drops his hands to his sides. He had obviously somehow locked himself inside. He looks back over his shoulder, and sees the Mara person. Her face is red and what appears to be steam is rising from the back of her head.

"You! May! Not! Leave!" she screams at him. He had heard the other women scream at him, and it never bothered him before. This one, though, freaked him out. A lot.

"The hell you say," replies Hibiki. He reaches into his trousers and pulls out a multi-tool. He moves to pry off the control panel to get the door open.

Suddenly, he feels himself being spun around with increadible force. He finds himself facing Mara again, yet, somehow, she never touched him. His confusion is replaced by fear as Mara steps up to him. He notices her eyes appear to be burning as she wags her finger in his face. "Excuse me, did you call me? Yeah! You did! YOU called me! I came! You're getting your wish, so SIT DOWN!"

Hibiki does what he is told, plopping down on the ground with his legs crossed. Mara's mood immediately lightens when he does this. She steps back and examines her fingernails absentmindedly, as if nothing had happened. "There, that's better!" she chirps.

Mara laces her fingers together and inverts her hands. Hibiki hears a loud cracking noise come from her knuckles. She then releases her hands and shakes them out. Crossing on arm across her chest, she touches her chin with the other, deep in thought. "Ok, lets see, what would Hibiki Tokai want?" she says to no one. "I don't _think_ it's to be rich," she continues, snapping her fingers.

Suddenly, Hibiki is surrounded by gold and multi-colored gem stones. He gawks at the sight, starry eyed, and reaches out for a particularly large, red colored gem that reminds him of the color of someone's hair. Suddenly, it all disappears are Mara snaps her fingers again. "No no, that's not what he wants. Might it be to be loved by women?" she says as she snaps her fingers again while looking off at nothing in particular.

Two gorgeous blonds appear next to Hibiki, both leaning in to him, smiling seductively. He tries to climb backwards up the door he is leaning against as he scrambles to get away from him. They disappear just as suddenly as they came with another snap of Mara's fingers. "No, definitely not that," she deadpans. She scrunches up her lips as she thinks about something else, then looks down at him as she is struck with an inspiration. Reaching down to him, she grabs him by the collar and hauls him to his feet. "Would he want to be 5 years older?"

Hibiki looks at himself and back to Mara. Instead of being slightly shorter than she was, he now towers over her. Turning his hands and arms over, he can tell that they are much stronger, the hands of a man, not a 17 year old boy. He pats his chest down, feeling the power in his new muscles.

"Nope, not it," says Mara casually, snapping her fingers again. Without warning, Hibiki returns to his normal size. "Hmmmm, what is Hibiki Tokia's heart's desire?" she now asks of him, with a smile and a glint of mischievousness in her eye?

Hibiki crosses his arms across his chest. "Ok, ok, I get it," he says. "Somehow, someway, you can grant me a wish and it will come true."

Mara nods at him, smiles, and slaps him on his forehead. "That's right! He can be taught!"

Hibiki huffs at her in annoyance. "Whats the catch," he inquires. There always was one when he dealt with women.

"Catch, oh, nothing you need to be worried about," replies Mara dismissively. "There just needs to be some balance to what you ask."

"Explain," is all that Hibiki can say.

"Well, you see," starts Mara. "As I said, everything must be in balance. For the happiness that you gain from your wish, and equal amount of suffering must be extracted."

"From where? Me?" asks Hibiki, suddenly unsure if he wanted to deal with it.

"Oh, it can be from anywhere, really," replies Mara. "And it does not need to be all at once or all from the same person. It could be that 10 people fall and scrape an elbow."

"Can I specify from where?" he asks.

"Nope, I decide that," she says, locking him in an evil stare.

Hibiki did not like the sound of that at all. He knew what he wanted, but he did not like the idea that someone he knew might have something bad happen to them. He had an idea.

"So, _if_ I make this wish, can I have your assurance that no one I know will suffer for it?" he asks.

"Hmm, asking for conditions for a wish," she asks. "Didn't your grandpa tell you not to look a gift horse in the mouth?"

Not knowing what a horse is, but understanding what she was saying, he pushes on. "I can't make a wish that I know will hurt someone I know," he explains. "If you can direct it to someone else, maybe someone from Earth, then I will make the wish."

Mara smiles knowingly. "I think that I can arrange that," she agrees.

Hibiki crosses his arms across his chest, making his decision. "Alright, here is my wish."


	6. Unraveling the Past

-6-

Hibiki crosses his arms across his chest as the three women digest his story. Glancing at the one called Skuld, she seems confused. Looking across the table at the one called Belldandy, she is staring down at the table, a sad look in her eye. _She must like this Keiichi guy._ Looking to his right at Urd, he can tell she is furious.

Before he can say anything else, Urd lays in to him. "You mean to tell me that, even after the warning she gave you that other people might suffer from your wish, you made it anyway?" She crosses her arms across her chest, still locking him in an icy glare. "What kind of an ass are you?"

Hibiki narrows his eyes as he stares back at Urd. Oh how he would relish pounding her into oblivion. He would have, too, before he met the crew of the Nirvana. They had tempered him some, so he simply responded in kind. "What the heck would you have had me do? I mean, this woman with fangs just suddenly appears in front of me, demands I make a wish, and threatens me if I didn't." He crosses his arms across his chest again and closes his eyes for emphasis. "What would you have done?"

Urd blinks for a second, as if dumbfounded by what he asked. "Oh, I don't know, maybe…REFUSED TO MAKE THE WISH?" she screams at him.

Hibiki turns his head away from her. "Well I did not know that was an option."

Urd growls in frustration, then throws her hand back as if she were going to throw something at him. A black orb forms in her hand. Hibiki can feel the air around him become charged with static electricity, and he starts to crawl away from the enraged woman.

"You stupid idiot!" hisses Urd. "I'll teach you, I summon…..!"

"Urd!" screams Belldandy, causing the white haired woman to freeze. The orb dissipates from her hand. "He's right, you know," she says quietly, still staring down at the table. "No one ever explains to mortals that they have the right to refuse a wish."

Urd deflates as Hibiki returns to his spot. They both simultaneously let out a sigh, Urd in resignation, Hibiki in relief. About a minute passes before Hibiki breaks the awkward silence, trying to change the subject. "So, how are you able to do all these things?"

All three women jump slightly as if they had been shocked. Skuld glances between the other 2 women. "Should we tell him?" she asks.

Urd puts an elbow on the table and rests her head on it. "I don't see how it could hurt anything now," she replies absentmindedly while she examines the fingernails on her other hand.

Hibiki immediately feels a sense of dread. Are they demons too? He again plots his escape, even though it would most likely be as futile as the previous attempt.

"There is no need to worry, we are not demons like Mara," says Belldandy in a comforting tone, almost as if she had read his thoughts. "We are Goddesses. We are the opposite of Demons."

Hibiki huffs as he hears this. "From my perspective, you aren't much different."

Belldandy glances at Urd with a scolding look, Urd smiles back sheepishly. She turns back to Hibiki and continues; "There is supposed to be a balance between happiness and misery. Demons work to increase misery, and Goddesses work to increase happiness."

"So, how do you explain my wish?" inquires Hibiki. "It would seem that Mara tried to make me happy."

"At the expense of another," replies Belldandy. "You and our Keiichi were probably swapped, therefore the balance is maintained." She sighs and looks back down at the table. "When you told her to exempt some people from the consequences of your wish, it gave her the ability to direct the unhappiness to someone specific, namely Keiichi. And with your wish being to 'Get away from that ship and those women', she used that to swap the two of you. We may not see him again." She almost starts crying as she finishes.

Hibiki bites his cheek. Truthfully, he had not cared what the consequences would be for his wish, partly because he did not believe it would happen. Yet here he was, and right in front of him was the result. This woman, or Goddess, was now going to have to suffer as a result of his wish. He wondered to himself what Keiichi must be going through on the Nirvana right now.

A moment of inspiration hits him. "Maybe we can somehow contact the Nirvana, get them to come here and bring Keiichi back," he says, hoping that it will make Belldandy feel better. "What planet did you say this was, Japan?"

Belldandy's head snaps up. She looks at Urd, obviously confused. Urd did not look any different. They both look back to Hibiki. "Did you ask what planet we are on?" they ask in unison.

"Oh boy, here we go," comments Skuld.

The trio refocus on Skuld, who has her arms crossed as if she is waiting for something. "What do you know that we don't?" asks Urd finally.

"Oh come on! Can't you see it?" cries out Skuld, exasperated that her sisters had missed it. "Look at him, I mean REALLY look at him! You don't need the Aura Checker to see it!"

Hibiki looks back to Belldandy and Urd, who are now studying him intently. He nervously looks back and forth between them until finally, Belldandy jerks her hands to her mouth and inhales sharply, eyes wide. "You're from the future!" she exclaims.

Hibiki blinks. _The future?_

Belldandy's gaze goes back to the table, more dejected than before. A tear flows down her cheek and drips off her nose, onto the table. Urd scoots over and puts her arm around her. Hibiki watches as Belldandy turns in to her and begins to sob as Urd tries to comfort her

"Its ok Big Sis!" says Skuld almost too cheerfully. "You will see him again, that's why the System Force did not kick in and stop the wish!"

Somehow, Hibiki thought that would not help, and he was right as he sees Urd glare at Skuld as Belldandy continues to sob. Desperate to find something good, he turns to Skuld. "How far back have I come?"

"Well, I can't say for sure, but this might help," she replies as she picks up a wand looking device from the floor. She had pulled it out earlier before his ill conceived attempt to escape, and had it ready just in case. She presses a button and starts to wave it over him. When she finishes, she pulls it back and looks at a small screen on its handle. "According to the serial number on your aura, you won't be born for at least 300 years."

The gravity of it hits him like a vanguard's fist. He was not supposed to be born for 300 HUNDRED years. There would be no contacting the Nirvana, no swapping Hibiki for him, and no more of Dita's rice balls. Everything that he knows is not even an idea on someone's drawing board. He stares in shock at Belldandy, who has stopped sobbing, but is still leaning against her sister for support. He understands her loss in a way now.

Still, there has to be something that can be done. "Look," he says finally, breaking several minutes of silence, "there has to be something that we can do to fix this."

Belldandy sits up and composes herself. "There may be something we can do," she replies, wiping the last tear from her eye, yet still looking for all the world like she had lost the most important thing in her life. "We can see if we can get Mara to release the contract."

"You can do that?" asks Hibiki.

"Yes," she replies. "From the beginning, both parties can reverse a contract if it has not been fulfilled completely or is ongoing. We need to find Mara and get the full details of the contract."

"Yeah, the fine print could make or break us here," says Urd hopefully.

"Is there anything I can do to help find Mara?" asks Hibiki. Now that they seemed to have a shot, no matter how remote, he wanted to make himself useful.

His hopes for that are dashed when Belldandy replies. "I'm sorry, it's a little too dangerous for you to come with us."

Dejected, he thinks for a second. "Well, is there any way I can get out and see the…." He stops and thinks for a second, then realizes that even though he had a vague idea of when he was, he still has no idea where. "What planet did you say I am on?"

"Earth," replies Urd.

Hibiki's stomach does two summersaults and he starts to sweat. Swallowing hard, he stammers out, "D-d-did you say Earth?"

"Yes," replies Urd matter of factly.

Hibiki's face turns white as he looks around frantically. If he was on Earth, were the Harvesters going to jump out at any time? He tries to calm himself, but he can feel the panic welling up in him. He was damn sure that no one was going to harvest _anything_ from him without a fight. Not seeing anything around that he could use as a weapon, he looks to Skuld, contemplating what it would take to overpower her and get some of those bombs she is carrying in her pockets.

Skuld, who is also looking at him with interest, suddenly reaches out and grabs him. Before he can react, she pulls him to her and whispers in his ear. _"The harvest is over 300 years away, too. There is no need to worry."_

Hibiki blinks and successfully fights down the panic. She was right of course, but how would she know about the harvest? "I am the Norn of the Future, I have foreseen it already," says Skuld, as if she were reading his mind.

Shaking himself and finally calming his nerves, he looks back at the three women. "Is there any way I could get a look around while you guys are trying to track down Mara?" he asks. "The only images I have seen of Earth are….."

"SHHHHH!" exclaims Skuld, putting her finger to her mouth. "You should not go around talking to people about that, it could be dangerous!"

Even though he was a mechanic and a vanguard driver, he understood on the vaguest of terms what a Time Paradox was. He also knew that they were bad, so he nods his head in understanding.

Suddenly, there were three very loud knocks at the front door.

"MORRISAATOOOOO!" rumbles someone from outside.

Hibiki jumps, Skuld rolls her eyes, and Urd lets out an exasperated sigh. Belldandy smiles, stands and gracefully walks around the table and into the hall. Curiosity getting the most of him, Hibiki jumps up and follows. Before they can get to the door, the person pounds on it again, a little more insistent this time.

"Morisato!" comes the bellowing voice from the other side. "You made a commitment to the Auto Club, and that's more important than playing with Belldandy!"

Belldandy opens the door to reveal two huge men standing on the porch. The one on the left is almost as wide as he is tall. With short, black hair and small eyes, he almost looks prehistoric. Hibiki can see his muscles bulging under the white shirt that almost does not fit him. The one on the right is taller still, and leaner. His blonde hair sticks straight up and his eyes are hidden by dark glasses. He is wearing a black jacket despite the heat Hibiki can feel coming in from the outside, as well as some white and grey objects from his ears, reminding him of some of the jewelry the women of the Nirvana wear at times.

"Tamiya! Otaki!" says Belldandy as she bows politely to them. "What brings you here?"

"Where's Morisato!" rumbles the hulking man.

Belldandy fidgets some as she replies, "I'm not entirely sure at this moment, Tamiya."

The tall one on the right, who Hibiki deduces must be Otaki, notices Hibiki, then looks back to Belldandy. "Who's the new guy? You didn't break up with Morisato and bed down this guy instead?"

Belldandy blushes furiously as she looks back to Hibiki, who steps up as he balls up his fists. He may not know these women very well, but they have been nice to him so far, and he was not going to let these two idiots talk to her like that.

Tamiya looks past Belldandy at Hibiki. "What a pipsqueak! He's as short as Morisato!"

"You must like the short ones, Belldandy!" wimpers Otaki, then starts crying.

Hibiki steps in between Belldandy and the two men. Otaki seems too oblivious to notice, too busy crying over Hibiki doesn't know what. Tamiya on the other hand, narrows his eyes and looks down at Hibiki.

"You need to get the hell out of here and leave her alone!" yells Hibiki, fire in his eyes.

Tamiya grunts and leans in towards Hibiki. "Or what, little man!"

Hibiki does not back down, not one inch. "Why don't you try something and find out!" he yells with as much threat as he can muster while raising his fist to the larger man. Ever since his ill-fated fight with Rabat several months ago, Meia has taught him some things about fighting. He hated the fact he had to learn from a woman, be she was the most experienced fighter there. Besides, she was sometimes more of a man than Duella and Bart.

Tamiya leans in closer, staring down at Hibiki as if trying to bore into his soul. Hibiki stares back, gritting his teeth, his muscles coiled like a cobra, ready to strike. The men on Taraak always executed this type of brinksmanship just before all hell broke loose, and it was apparently no different here. It was just a matter of who would blink first. Any second now, the larger man would press his perceived advantage over Hibiki, and he would pay for it.

Then, the larger man did something wholly unexpected.

Instead of trying to push Hibiki, which was a prelude to him throwing the first punch, the larger man leaned back and started to laugh. Otaki, who had composed himself and was watching as well, started laughing at the same time. Anger welled up in Hibiki, they were laughing at him, and he was going to make them pay. However, Tamiya did something else unexpected, something that disarmed Hibiki completely.

"I like him! He's got balls!" rumbles Tamiya in between chuckles as he reaches out and pats Hibiki on the head.

Completely in shock at what just happened, Hibiki can only reply; "Gee, thanks?" He looks to Belldandy, who simply smiles at him. Then he notices Urd and Skuld's head poking out of the room he came from. As soon as they notice him looking, they disappear back inside.

"So where's Morisato?" rumbles Tamiya again.

Hibiki pauses for a second, looking to Belldandy. She seems frozen with the question. Somehow, he got the feeling this was a question that she was not going to be able to answer properly, so he plows in.

"He had an emergency to attend to," he says matter-of-factly. "He asked me to look after the girls."

Tamiya regards him critically, and Hibiki wonders if he was going to buy it. "So you know Morisato," he says, more as a statement of fact.

Hibiki swallows. "Yes?"

"Do you know anything about engines?" asks Tamiya, completely missing that what Hibiki said was more of a question.

"Yeah, Morisato said he would help us this morning on setting up a new bike for a race," says Otaki. "We need his help!"

Hibiki considers this for a second, he was a mechanic after all. "I might be able to help," he says finally. "I don't know much about these things called bikes, but my grandpa used to have a tri-cycle that I used to ride."

Tamiya blinks, not exactly comprehending what Hibiki just said. Otaki fills in; "A tricycle?"

"No, a tri-CYCLE!" exclaims Hibiki, correcting him. "Three wheels, huge tires, huge engine. Even though it was not designed for it, I got it up over 150 once."

"Whoa!" exclaim Tamiya and Otaki in unison. "Can you come have a look?" asks Tamiya.

Hibiki looks to Belldandy, who is smiling back. "You said you wanted to get out and look around, now would be a good time to do that. We know where the Auto Clubs garage is, we will be by when we know something else."

"Then it's decided!" exclaims Tamiya as he steps up and puts his hand on Hibiki's shoulder and guides him out the door. As they pass, Otaki puts his hand on Hibiki's other shoulder, and together, they lead him down the path, all the while extolling the virtues of the Auto Club.

XXX

Belldandy watches as Hibiki and the two leaders of the Auto Club walk down the path and around the corner, out of sight. She feels the presence of her sisters as they come up from behind her.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" asks Urd and she stares out the door.

"I got the sense that Earth is much different in his time," replies Belldandy. "It might be good for him to see what it is like now."

"I agree with Big Sis," says Skuld, without elaborating any further.

Belldandy could tell that her younger sister knew something more. Her awareness of the future gave her insight into some things, but it was against the rules for her to ask Skuld anything about it. Unfortunatly, even for Keiichi's sake, she could not break it. "I have some phone calls to make, can you two go look for Mara?"

"Of course we can!" pipes up Urd. She grabs Skuld by the shoulder and begins to lead her out the front door. "Come on, pipsqueak!"

"Hey!" replies Skuld indignantly. "I'm no pipsqueak! I'll have you know…"

Their bickering trails off as they round the house, leaving Belldandy to her thoughts. She sinks down on her knees and sobs softly for a moment.

_Oh Keiichi, I hope you are alright!_

* * *

A/N A quick note on timelines. I have not seen anything definitive on exactly how far in the future the Vandread storyline is from our present. I have seen some go as low as 200 years, and others as far as 2000. I picked 400 (from a previous chapter) completely out of my ass. If anyone knows what it should be exactly (and can proove it), then let me know and I can adjust the story accordingly. And for those particulary sharp individuals, I did not make a mistake when I said that Hibiki was going to be born in 300 years. Remember that he spent at least 80 of that in cold sleep.


	7. Of Bikes and Men and Demons

-7-

It had taken them almost an hour to get to the clubhouse. Hibiki had asked them to take the scenic route, and they had obliged him. He wanted to get a chance to look around, to get a chance to see what Earth had been like before the time of the Harvest. So far, what he had seen had impressed him.

Instead of the barren, dead world he had seen in the message contained in Misty's pod, this Earth was full of life. Everywhere he looked, it seemed like the color green dominated the landscape. He remembered the plants from the garden on the Nirvana, but what he saw was on a scale much larger than anything he could have imagined. The ground was covered with grass everywhere he looked. Shrubs of every shape and size adorned the area. Flowers of every color imaginable dotted the landscape. Then there were the trees, coming out of the ground on large, majestic brown columns the like he had never seen.

He also noticed all the people that were out. They came in every shape and size, old and young. He saw men and women together, sometimes just walking, sometimes holding hands, and sometimes holding each other. Many times, just like in the movie he and Dita had found, they came in families. The more he saw them, the more he realized that this was the norm. The ways he was brought up with on Taraak, the ways he had learned from the women of Mejere, they were the alien way. What he saw here, was the natural order of things.

Just as he was coming to grips with his revelation, they had arrived. The clubhouse was nothing more than a small shack. It was well maintained, but showed a lot of age. As they walked around the front of the building, Tamiya broke off and started around to the side, leaving him and Otaki in front of what appeared to be a door of some type. "You wait there, I'll be right back," he rumbles.

As he waited, Hibiki hears the larger man open a door on the side. Next came a cacophony of crashes and cussing as the big man rummages around inside the building, doing who knows what. Finally, the door they were standing in front of starts to rise, revealing the inside of the shack. There were a number of workbenches hugging the inside walls, all of which had tools strewn across them haphazardly.

But what really caught his attention was the two wheeled bike sitting in the middle of the floor. It was a primitive but sleek design, black with red highlights. It had a pointed front and a tapered back windshield that told him that the designers at least had some understanding of aerodynamics. The seat was set back towards the rear, telling Hibiki that the rider most likely laid down on the bike to decrease the drag even further.

Otaki steps past Hibiki up to the bike and turns around, then pats the bike's seat lovingly. "This is a '01 Yamaha YZF-R1, my man!" For a second there, Hibiki thought he saw a tear roll down the blonde man's cheek.

Tamiya steps up behind Otaki and puts a hand on his shoulder. "It has a 998 cc inline four wit' liquid cooling and fuel injection, cranking out 175 horsepower that gets this baby up'ta 275 kilometers per hour." A tear rolls down his cheek as well. "She can go from 0 to 100 in three seconds flat!" With that, both men bury their eyes in the crux of their arms and begin to ball like babies. _Geez, these guys cry just as much as Bart!_

Hibiki shifts nervously from one foot to another as he waits, wondering to himself if this is how men from Earth normally act. After a minute, Tamiya finally comes around and looks down at Hibiki, clearing his throat and spitting some of the built up snot onto the ground. "What we needed Morisato for is 'cause it ain't run'in right. It idles rough, and it ain't got no balls when we ride 'er."

Hibiki scratches the back of his head for a second, wondering just what exactly he can do. Either these guys were idiots, or this Morisato is a much better mechanic then they are. _I'd sure like to get a look at it on the inside_, he thinks to himself, deciding to take a crack at it. "Do you guys have the manual for the engine?" he asks, looking back at Tamiya and Otaki.

Almost as if he had been reading his mind, the large man turns and grabs a book off a bench to his left, and tosses it at Hibiki, who picks it up. Flipping through the pages, he sees a bunch of exploded engineering diagrams of the engine, including step by step instructions on how to disassemble it. Even though the parts are alien to him, he recognizes the basic components. Valves, pistons, exhaust, it's all there. "_The basic design hasn't changed in over 300 years,"_ he whispers under his breath. He looks back up to the two larger men, who are staring back at him expectedly. "Can I get a multispanner and gyrotorque driver?"

Tamiya and Otaki give each other confused looks, then look back to Hibiki. "Naw, we ain't got none uh 'dose," replies the larger man.

Otaki turns around and steps to a bench behind him, grabbing a number of items off it, then turns and presents them to Hibiki. He stares down at them, trying to discern what they are. The larger pieces all have elongated handles, with one side having an enclosed circle while the other side has an open, crescent like part. The smaller pieces all have larger plastic handles with round metal bars embedded in them. At the end of the bars, they are formed into the shape of either a star or a blade.

"What are these?" asks Hibiki, staring down at what look more like primitive weapons than tools.

Otaki blinks for a second, then furrows his brow, obviously confused at the question. "You mean you don't know what wrenches and screwdrivers are?"

"OH!" exclaims Hibiki as he tries to play off his ignorance. "Sorry, they are called something different where I come from!" He smiles back at Otaki, hoping that it worked

That seemed to satisfy the tall blonde man, and he releases the tools as Hibiki reaches in and takes them. The shorter man then lays them down on the ground next to the bike, sorting them by tool type, size, and function. As he sits down next to the bike and prepares to get to work, he notices Otaki leave and head towards the vehicle that brought them here. Tamiya steps up and towers over him. "Welp, are ya all set?"

Instantly, Hibiki recognizes what's going on. "What the hell? Aren't you guys going to stick around and help?" he exclaims.

"Nope, 'dis was Morisato's job, an now its yurz, thanks fer volunteering!" replies Tamiya as he steps away and grabs his jacket. "We got importn't club business to attend to. We'll be back to check in wit cha' later." With that, he heads off to the same vehicle as before, gets in and peels out as the to club managers leave the smaller man from the future behind.

"Dammit," Hibiki mutters to himself as he watches them scream off. He has half a mind to toss the tools down and leave. But the other half that is curious about what this thing looks like on the inside overrules that part. It was only a partial victory though as he angrily sets about the task of dismantling the engine.

XXX

On the other side of town, in an older section of Nekomi, sits an old, abandoned office building. Six stories tall, with a base that was wider than the rest of the building, it had been scheduled for demolition a number of times. However, any time work crews would approach the build, things happened. Mostly innocuous things, but things still the same. Things like erie sounds coming from the old ventilation shafts. Things like lunchboxes and tools mysteriously falling or sometimes flying across rooms.

The latest thing that happened was too a particularly determined crew that did not take the hints the first time around. Mysteriously, the bulldozer they had started up and somehow came into gear. It had destroyed some equipment and injured some of the workers before they were able to bring it under control. Since that incident, the company that owns the building and the city that wants to build a new shopping mall on the site has been unable to find anyone willing to come and do what needed to be done. The building had been deemed to be haunted.

There were no ghosts, though, so it was not haunted. Technically, it was possessed, by a demon.

And that demon had just gotten off work at the convenience store that she now manages part time.

Coming down the stairs to her lair, which most people would call the basement, Mara yawns and slumps her shoulders as she drags herself towards the door. It had been a long night. Her blonde hair was a mess, as she had nearly torn it out a number of times rather than zap some particularly annoying customers. Her orange uniform was stained a sickly brown in one spot, due to some nitwit that could not hold his liquor having thrown up on her. The store had started operating 24 hours, and she had drawn the short straw this week.

"Man, twelve hour shifts suck!" she exclaims to anyone listening as she steps into the room. "And the people that come in at two and three am are just plain scary." She pauses, looking around the room suspiciously. The normal routine she had was somehow off. Normally, her rat minions would greet her and praise her and encourage her. They would then give her a progress report on whatever it was that they were working on, and it's potential, if any, to make the Goddesses at the temple unhappy in some way.

This morning, that was conspicuously absent. It was quiet, and that immediately put her on edge. Instantly alert, she scans her surroundings, looking for anything that could explain the silence. To her left, in the middle of the floor, lay the rats' latest work. The only thing she knew of it was that it was only half finished. Whatever function it had, she would find out when its done. To her right, the crane game where she conjured new minions sat where it was supposed to be.

"You guys better not be trying to freak me out or you will suffer!" she announces, hoping that it would scare them into coming out and greeting her. The absence of the normal hustle and bustle was starting to unnerve her. She snaps her fingers and a glowing orb appears in her hand, bathing the room in light. She immediately notices a form on the far side of the room. Glowing, violet eyes that are framed by a mane of silver white hair stare back to her. Mara gapped at the figure. It wasn't one of her child-like avatars, it was HER!

Mara immediately drops to her knees and then bows deeply, with her head touching the floor and arms outstretched. "Lady Hild! What have I done to deserve a visit from the Ruler of Demon-kind? If I had known you were…"

"I SUMMON LIGHTNING!"

Mara's eyes go wide as she feels the static electricity around her begin to build. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, she is struck by blue lightning, causing her to jerk her body back into a sitting position, paralyzed as the power painfully courses through her. Muscles locked up, she cannot move, nor can she scream, though she wants to. After a moment, the lightning subsides, leaving her sitting, frozen, with a look of agony plastered to her face. As she starts to regain her faculties, the owner of the voice that had spoke the words rushes to her, grabbing her by the collar and hoisting her up to her feet. Mara vaguely becomes aware that instead of the purple six and five pointed stars that Hild wore as her sigils, this one had blue triangles.

"Don't you EVER call me by HER name again!" screams Urd in her face. Mara then feels the sensation of flying as Urd throws her across the room.

The jolt from landing on the floor brings her back to her senses and the blonde demon is up in a flash. "For the love of the Diamakaicho! What the hell was that for?" screams Mara back at Urd, who was now turned with her back facing her. Instantly, Mara knew she had said the wrong thing again as Urd's head snapped to the side. She glared back at the demon with hatred in her eyes. Mara tensed, waiting for the inevitable attack that was surely coming.

But it didn't.

Instead, Urd's eyes softened a little as she smiled. Mara did not let her guard down, though, there was still a glint of mischief there, she had seen it before. The goddess and the demon had known each other since they were small children, so Mara knew when she was still up to something.

Urd turns towards Mara, the smirk still on her face. "Yeah, I didn't come here to fight."

"Could have fooled me!" fires back the blonde demon, still ready for anything. She has had about enough of this intrusion. "It's pretty ballsy that you would come here by yourself.

Urd just continues to smile, setting Mara more on edge. There was something in the way she was holding herself. She glances around in front of her, but does not see anybody but the bronze goddess in front of her. Unfortunately, with her focus on Urd, she did not bother to look behind her.

A voice behind her causes her to lock up. "Who says she came alone?"

Frozen in place, Mara slowly turns her head and is confronted by long, flowing raven colored hair and rounded, blue sigils. "Oh, its only Skuld," deadpans Mara, letting out a sigh of relief. The youngest goddess was generally no threat to her alone. Together with Urd, they were at least a match for Mara, but she was confident that she could prevail. _At least it was not Belldandy or that accursed…_

Mara's eyes go wide as she realizes that Banpie was there as well. She had been so focused on the teenager that Mara did not see her automaton until it stepped out from behind her. The red and white robot had a frown drawn his face, which was its only way of expressing the rudimentary emotions that it had been programmed with.

_This is definitely not good_. It was unlike the goddesses to proactively seek her out unless she had tried to do something to get them to leave the mortal realm. But she had not done anything in at least a week, so their presence here was more than a little baffling.

As if reading her mind, Urd steps toward Mara, raising her hands from her side and showing the palms of her hands. The mortals would do this as a sign of respect, showing their opponent that they had no weapons. Mara knew better though. Goddesses could use their voice much more effectively than their hands.

"Like I said, we did not come here to fight," repeats Urd. "But we did come here to ask you to do something."

"And what would that be?" Mara bit back with contempt. They have invaded her space, and now they have the nerve to ask her to do something for them?

"We need you to cancel your contract with Hibiki Tokai," says Urd flatly.

"Cancel my whatsit with whosit?" replies Mara, not exactly sure what she had just heard.

Urd crosses her arms across her chest and locks Mara in a cold stare. "You made a contract with Hibiki Tokia that caused him to trade places with Keiichi," says the goddess. "I don't know what you were thinking when you made that contract, but I want it rescinded immediately so he can go back where he came from."

Mara looked back at Urd with a blank expression on her face. She had not made a contract with any mortals since Sayoko Mishima, for all the good THAT did her. Why would Urd think that she had made this contract?

Before she could answer, Urd spoke up, again almost as if reading her mind. "Oh, we know it was you, Hibiki told us what happened and he described you to a 'T'."

Mara knew where this was going. Her childhood experiences with Urd told her that she was not going to just let it drop, or take her word for it. There was no escape either, not with Skuld and Banpie behind her, blocking the only exit to the basement. Silently, she cursed herself for not putting her lab on one of the upper floors, where there were plenty of windows for her to dive out if in cases such as this. She had to figure out a way out of this, or things were going to get messy.

"Listen Urd," she started, trying to sound as calm as possible. "I have not made a contract with anyone in years. I have absolutely no clue who this Hibitey Tokey is, and I certainly have not made a contract with him." She looked back to the goddess, hoping that she had sounded sincere enough that Urd might believe that she was telling the truth.

Urd smiled. An evil, wicked smile that reminded the blonde demon to much of the Diamakaicho. "Skuld, have Banpie play something for Mara," commanded Urd while maintaining the smile that was so unnerving to Mara. "Something catchy."

XXX

Sitting back and admiring his work, Hibiki rubbed his hands on one of the many greasy shop towels lying around. It was dirty, working on these things. But what could you expect from something so primitive. Instead of the synthetic lubricants that he was used to that used specialized carbon molecules that were in the shape of balls, this machine used a black lubricant called 'oil', way in excess of what he was used to. But, he surmised, it was so inefficient, they had to use more. The fuel seemed to also be made from the base as the oil. 'Gasoline', they called it, the burning of which appeared to leave black soot inside the cylinders and on the valves.

The metal it was made of was different as well, but that was to be expected. His Grandpa's Tri-Cycle ran on hydrogen, and the engine required completely different types of metal, ones that would not corrode when it came in contact with the waste product of the combustion of said fuel, namely water. Here, everything seemed to be created out of an iron based alloy. It would not work in a hydrogen engine, but here it worked perfectly.

Every part that he had taken off the bike was laying neatly on the ground in front of him. You may not have been able to tell it when you looked at his room, but when it came to working on machines, especially ones you were not fully familiar with, organization was key. He would have no chance to put it back together again if he did not meticulously ensure that every part was put somewhere he would remember it. Looking around, he picked up one of the cylinder valves that he had removed. Looking it over it absentmindedly, his thoughts drifted back to the Nirvana, and to a particular red-headed woman that he had come to know.

He cringed when he thought of her sometimes. Always following him, always calling him Mr. Alien, she sometimes did not seem to understand the concept of personal space. It was all he could do to get away from her sometimes. In fact, somewhat ironically he thought, it was getting away from her that caused him to be in this mess in the first place. Being on the bad side of what appeared to be some fairly powerful goddesses, or whatever they were called, was not his idea of a good time.

_But then, she was the only one to really not judge me because I am a man._ She had accepted him and tried to help him when others were not so willing to do so. It had taken weeks of diligent work to prove to the other women that he was less of something you would be just as likely scrape off your shoe, and more of a crewmate at the minimum. But the redhead had been there from the beginning, cheering him on. It helped that she knew how to cook all that yummy food as well. He smiled at the thought.

"Whatcha doin?"

As the voice hits his ears, Hibiki realizes there is someone's head in his peripheral vision, and he screams. The simultaneous assault on his senses comes from his right, causing him to scramble to his left, sending the well organized parts of the bike flying as he tries to escape.

As he turns to face his would be attacker, he hears a raucous laughter. Standing there in front of him is…..a woman, doubled over, holding her stomach as she howled at him hysterically.

"What the hell are you laughing at, woman!" screams Hibiki, still panting and holding his chest as if he were physically trying to keep his heart from jumping out. To say that she had startled him was one of the understatements of the day.

The unknown woman composes herself, at least enough to respond. "On man, that was like the funniest thing I've seen all day!" Still stifling a laugh, she stares back at him and smiles. "My name is Megumi, I'm looking for my brother Keiichi, have you seen him?"

Hibiki swallows. _What are the odds of this happening? _

* * *

A/N: Special thanks to Nena Camadera for proofing and a LOT of advice! If you guys want to have a look at some good OMG stories, check out her current ones, "Origins" and "Angel Biter".

Funny bit of trivia for me, the incident between Hibiki and Megumi actually happened to me! My boss snuck up behind me while I was engrossed in something, and merely said "Hi!". I nearly fell out of my chair trying to get away from him!


	8. You Can Lead a Horse to Water

-8-

Hibiki had to remind himself first that it was, in fact, possible for a woman and a man to be brothers and, something. He thought he recalled the women on the Nirvana telling him once what two female siblings were, but for the life of him, he could not remember right this instant. _So how do I explain to her that I swapped places with Keiichi and that he is not only across the galaxy, but in the distant future?_ A bead of sweat rolled down his cheek as he desperately tried to think of something. He cheered to himself as an idea formed. But he needed to recall the name of the nicest of the three goddesses, the one who could cook and was worried about Keiichi. _Was it Verdandy? Belldanthi? _"Um, Belldandy called and asked him to go back home, said she saw a rat, or something."

"A rat?" queried Megumi with a raised eyebrow. The tone of her voice made him think she wasn't buying it.

"Oh yeah, huge!" he replies, using his hands for emphasis. "A mega-rat."

Megumi snorts in amusement, then smiles. "Well, if that's the excuse he gave you to get back home to Belldandy, then that works for me!" She then diverts her attention to the disassembled motorcycle. "So, what's wrong with the bike?"

Internally, Hibiki breathes a sigh of relief. As long as she does not ask any more questions about Keiichi, he figures he should be fine. Looking around at the mess he has made of the parts to the engine, he silently curses the woman for scaring him like that. But, in the end, it was his fault for overreacting. He spies one of the parts he is looking for, stoops down, and picks it up. Still crouching, he holds it up to Megumi. "The big guys were complaining about it running rough and not having any power. I think this is the problem."

"Bent valve, huh," says Megumi as she eyes it critically, more as an observation than a question. "That'll do it."

Hibiki is impressed that she recognizes what it is right off. Other than Parfet, the Nirvana's petite chief engineer, none of the other women he knows probably would have known what it was from a spoon. He stands up and shoves his hands into the pockets of his orange jumpsuit, then starts looking around. "There's another one just like it somewhere around here."

"Another one?" asks Megumi, her interest peaked. "Was it from the same cylinder?"

"Yeah, how did you know?" replies the spiky haired teen.

Instead of answering, Megumi steps up to be bike, grabs a wrench, and starts taking it apart further. Hibiki immediately catches on that she definitely knows her way around bikes as he watches her deftly dismantle another part of the engine. After a few minutes, she comes out with a chain, staring critically at it. "I don't see any defects in the cam chain," she says out loud, but to no one in particular. She looks up to Hibiki. "In fact, it almost looks brand new."

Hibiki scratches his chin, thinking to himself. He remembers reading in the manual that the cam chain was used to control the timing of the cylinders, drive shaft, and the valves. It made sense to him that if there was a defect in the chain, it would cause the valves to hit the cylinder heads and bend them. But she apparently does not see anything overtly wrong with this one.

Suddenly, the brown haired girl snaps her fingers, stands, and then goes into the garage. Hibiki watches as she disappears, only to return a few moments later with a small box. On the cover of the box is a picture of the chain in question. "Where is the manual?" she asks as she steps over to the bike. Hibiki points to where it lays, and Megumi stoops down and grabs it, then sits on the ground and starts flipping through it.

After a moment, she appears to find what she is looking for and then glances at the box. She goes back and forth between the two a couple of more times, then curses loudly. "Those idiots!" she exclaims. Hibiki can only stare back with a confused look on his face. The brown haired girl seems to sense this, and beckons him over. He steps around her and looks over her shoulder at what she has in her hand. "See here? Look at the part number on the box." Hibiki does as he is instructed, still frowning. "Now look at the part number in the book."

Realization dawns on him as to what she is trying to show him. "The last numbers are one off from each other!" he exclaims.

"Yep," agrees Megumi. "Whirlwind was probably out of the chain they needed, and that idiot Otaki probably figured there can't be that much difference if the part numbers were only one off from each other." She sighs in resignation while shaking her head. She looks back up at him and smiles. Reflexively, Hibiki jerks back, unsure what to say or do. He had seen that smile before, from a certain redhead.

Before he can react, Megumi tosses the book to the ground, jumps up and puts the chain back in the box. "Welp, I'm hungry, I didn't get any lunch. Let's say you and me pack up here and go get some grub?" she asks as she closes it.

"Uhhhhhh, grub?" inquires Hibiki, not quite understanding why they would want to go get beetle larvae.

She gives him a wider smile than what she had before. "You ain't from around here, are ya?" she asks, putting her hands on her hips and continuing to smile. She does not give him any time to respond; "You know, grub? Vittles…?" Hibiki just stares back at her with a blank expression. "Food?" she says finally.

"Oh yeah….." he says finally as the realization finally dawns on him what she is asking. Come to think of it, he was getting hungry. A growl from his stomach only emphasizes the point. "Sure, that sounds good!"

"Sweet! My bike is on the other side of campus. It's only a short walk from here." With that, Megumi and Hibiki pick up all the parts of the bike, roll it back into the garage, and close the door before heading off.

XXX

_I saw him dancin' there by the record machine_

_I knew he must a been about seventeen_

_The beat was goin' strong_

_Playin' my favorite song_

_An' I could tell it wouldn't be long_

_Till he was with me, yeah me,_

_An' I could tell it wouldn't be long_

_Till he was with me, yeah me,_

_Singin' I love Rock n' Roll_

_So put another dime in the jukebox baby!_

Urd absent-mindedly played with her hair as she floated on her side above the floor, bouncing her feet to the beat of one of her favorite songs. She has to admit to herself, she was impressed. It has been nearly an hour and a half since they had started playing. Mara has been involuntarily dancing to whatever Rock and Roll tune they could think of since then. Yet still, she had not broken. Glancing over to the blonde haired demon, she cannot help but feel a little twang of guilt for what she was subjecting her friend to. But she quickly squashes it. They needed to get Keiichi back, if for any other reason than Belldandy's sanity. Family comes first.

Skuld, for her part, was keeping herself somewhat entertained, but definitely not out of trouble. For the first half hour, she danced with Mara, more to mock her than anything. That was until she noticed the crane game. Since then, almost half of the balls in the game had been claimed. The silver haired goddess wondered what it was that fascinated her younger sister so much about it as they all came out with the same thing: a rat. They were demonic rats for sure, and now approximately twenty of them, still in their balls, were rolling around the floor like pet hamsters.

The situation with the last rat that had been retrieved was a little different, though. For some reason, Skuld took pity on that one, and she had pried open the container it was in. The rat inside looked at her sweetly, as if to say thank you, then promptly bit her finger. For the last ten minutes or so, Skuld has been stalking the room with her hammer, looking for that rat, ready to send it to the same place the Yggdrasil bugs go when they meet that same hammer. Several of Mara's things had met up with the hammer in the process, with sometimes spectacular results.

Urd could tell this was grating on Mara's nerves more than the dancing was, so she has not intervened. At least not yet. As the song winds down, she looks over to Skuld. "Turn Banpei off for a second!" she yells.

Skuld stalks out of the corner, mumbling something disparaging about the ancestry of said rat, before walking over to Banpei and whispering to him. Almost immediately, the room is silent, save for the noise of the plastic balls on the floor as the rats they contain move them around. With a relieved sigh, Mara falls to her knees, panting heavily.

The blonde demon just sits there, arms down to her side, shoulders hunched over, and head down with her chin touching her chest. This only lasts a minute, though. Suddenly, Mara's head snaps up and she snarls, exuding a frightened yip from Skuld. Her eyes are completely red as she seethes in rage, focusing on the bronze skinned goddess with all her fury. As she stands, black orbs form in her hands, electricity emanating from them. In a low, rumbling, menacing voice, she sneers at Urd; "I will make you pay for that….."

And just like that, the orbs disappear from her hands, and she lets out a sigh, falling back to her knees. "…. later," she finishes, letting out another sigh, clearly exhausted and drained.

Urd looks up from her preoccupation with her fingernails, seemingly oblivious to what had just happened. She looks over to the defeated demon. "Are you done?" she asks point blank.

Mara looks up at Urd and then rolls her eyes and nods, blowing another heavy sigh out of her mouth. She places her hands in her lap and stares up at Urd, who has floated over and is now standing in front of her. The goddess stoops down and looks at Mara with her piercing, violet eyes. "Good, now be a good little demon and release that contract we were asking about earlier."

Mara shakes her head, then pinches the bridge of her nose as if she has a headache. "Look Urd, I already told ya, I don't have any contracts with anyone right now." She slaps her hand back into her lap angrily and stares back at Urd with hate filled eyes. "If you don't believe me, go ask your MOTHER!" That said, she tiredly stares down at the floor.

Despite the anger that suddenly builds up in her at the mere mention of the CEO of Hell, she only narrows her eyes at Mara, and then stands up. "Listen Mara, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. If you would just do the needful, then this would be all over with," she says, waving her arms around as if demonstrating something grand. She then reaches down and snatches the demon's head in her hand, forcing Mara to look into her eyes. "But if you continue to resist, then we will just have to turn the beat up another notch!"

Mara looks up at Urd with defiant eyes. "Then I guess we are going to be her a while, 'cuz I don't know spit!"

Outside the building, a couple walking by quickens their pace as they wonder to themselves where the loud Van Halen music is coming from.

XXX

Having completely lost track of time, Hibiki just sits back in his seat, listening to Megumi go on about her life, school, frustrations, and whatever else she's poured out to him since they had arrived at what she had called "Pineappledee's". After months of living on a ship filled with women, has learned that looking attentive, nodding, and giving the occasional affirmative answer to a question was more than enough to placate them. Not that he was bored or anything, he in fact, it was quite interesting to hear her talk about some of the things she took for granted that he had not experienced. Even so, it completely took him by surprise when she turned the tables on him, asking him about his family.

"There's not much to tell," he starts, choking back the sudden urge to spit what was left of his chicken sandwich all over her. "I never knew my dad, my grandpa raised me until I was about fourteen, then sent me to the city to live and learn to be a man."

"Wow, that's so sad," says Megumi with more than a little concern in her voice. "What about your Mom?"

That question nearly caught Hibiki off guard. "Didn't know her either," he quickly replies, placing his hand down on the table and staring at the plate in front of him. He had almost forgotten that here, men and women lived together, and this 'Mom' person must be the female side of the equation.

As he stares at what was left of his meal contemplating the meaning of 'Mom', he suddenly feels something on his hand. Looking up, he realizes that Megumi has reached across the table and put her hand on his. "If it's any consolation," she says, "I think that you turned out all right." With that, she smiles and squeezes his hand.

Hibiki pauses for a second, trying to process the sensation that he is feeling from the contact. He then jerks his hand back as if he had been electrocuted. That look she had giving him, it had reminded him so much of….._dammit not a good time to be thinking of that right now._ He glances back to Megumi, who is looking back intently with a hurt and confused look on her face.

"I'm sorry," he says, trying to defuse the situation. He looks away from her. "I don't have a lot of experience with this."

He looks back sheepishly, and sees her expression shift. She tilts her head to the side, narrowing one eye at him. At first he thinks she is getting angry, but as he watches her intently, she appears to be mulling over what he had just said. It was true, no doubt. Even his experiences with Misty, who was the only other girl he had ever met before today that knew what it was like for men and women to be together, had not quite prepared him for this. After a moment, one side of Megumi's lips curl up into a smile.

"You went to an all boys school, didn't you," she concludes, changing from the half smile to a full one.

Hibiki ponders this for a second, and decides to go with it. It wasn't that far from the truth, after all. "Yeah, you can say that," he replies. "Plus, there weren't any girls where I lived either." Again, definitely not a lie. He chuckled internally at how not lying could actually perpetuate something that needed to be covered up.

Megumi snorted and absent mindedly flipped back her brown hair. "Well, there's no way I can get you caught up in one night," she says with a sly grin. Hibiki sits back in his chair, resisting the urge to bolt. He was now, genuinely interested to see where this was going. If he makes it back to the Nirvana, he would be better prepared on how to deal with the women. If he was stuck here, well, the same idea applied.

"Since you are new to this, we will forget about rule number one," says Megumi as she picks up her bag from the floor and pulls out a small purse.

"And what is rule number one?" inquires Hibiki, frowning.

She giggles at him and flashes that smile again. "The boy always pays!" That said, she begins pulling small pieces of paper out of the purse and lays them on the table.

Hibiki has to resist the urge to ask what they are, knowing that he needs to just go with the flow since she was willing to lead. Not being in the lead feels alien to him, but he is in a strange place with strange ways. It only makes sense that he relinquishes control, if only for a little while. Besides, the goddesses could probably tell him about that stuff later.

Having finished laying the paper on the table, she jumps up out of her seat. "Ok, where do you want to go?"

He ponders this for a second. He had gotten the grand tour of the city with Tamiya and Otaki. He glances out the window and sees the sun approaching the horizon. "I want to go someplace to see the sun go down," he replies. He had seen sunsets on his home planet of Taraak, as well as on a few other worlds. But for some reason, he felt an uncontrollable urge to see the sunset from his native planet.

Her smile gets even larger as she reaches out to him. "Ok! I know exactly the place to go!"

Hibiki just stares at her for a moment, not quite understanding what she wants with her hand held out like it was. She shakes her head and steps toward him. "Geez, you're more dense than my brother!" she says and then reaches down and takes his hand in hers. "Rule number two is if you like someone, you hold hands!" she says, half scolding him. She then begins to drag him out of the building. As they are leaving, one word echoes in Hibiki's brain:

LIKE?

_Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all?_

* * *

A/N: This came a lot easier than the previous chapter. It just flew out as I typed. It showed, though. Nena covered it in red ink. Originally, this and the following chapter were supposed to be together, but as I expanded it, it became apparent I needed to break it up. Hope you like. Again, if you got this far, leave a review! It does not take more than a minute or so to say how much you hate my guts for writing this (or to tell me how much you love me, for that matter!).

Song lyrics are from "I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. I obvioulsly do not own this. I chose this because it fit as possibly being Mara's all time most hated song. It also kind of alludes to what Megumi was thining/feeling when she saw Hibiki for the first time.


	9. But You Cannot Make Him Drink

-9-

Silence

Beautiful Silence

Well, all except this.

_Take me down_

_To the paradise city_

Mara lay there, sprawled out on the floor of her basement, the chorus of the last song she had been subjected to playing over and over in her head. Consciously, she knows that song has ended, she even knows that her musical torture was finished. Her subconscious was just not caught up to this yet. She closed her eyes, willing it to stop. Yet it ignores her, continuing to run over and over in the back of her mind, like a broken record.

_To the paradise city_

_Where the grass is green_

Reflexively, her left foot is still tapping to the beat that no longer exists. It has been at least an hour, probably more, since the last 'break' Urd had afforded her. Since that break ended, she had been subjected to the soulful melodies of Iron Maiden, Queensryche, Def Leopard, Guns 'n' Roses, AC/DC, Van Halen, and a plethora of additional heavy metal rock bands that, up until now, drove her to the brink of insanity. Mercifully, it is apparently over now. Vaguely, she becomes aware of someone putting their hand on her forehead, as if they were feeling to see if she had a fever. The hand works its way to the right side of her face where it forces her eyelids open. Although her vision is blurry, she can still make out the red and white robes and raven colored hair of Skuld as she peers into her eyes, looking for signs of life.

_Where the grass is green_

_And the girls are pretty_

Mara groans as the subconscious assault continues. Through it, she becomes aware that Skuld is speaking. "She would have done it if she could have," she comments. "No one could have taken that much abuse for that long." The blonde demon flinches at that. She so wants to reach up, grab the teenager by the throat, and scream _WELL DUH!_ But she knows that the younger goddess was just the cog to the plan. No, the engine that has been driving this travesty was the silver haired one who is leaning in and now trying to peek in through the window to her soul that was her eye. "Well, I guess you were right," she agrees.

_And the girls are pretty_

_Take me home_

_Well of course she is right, you idiot!_ Mara was incredulous that Urd had finally come to that realization. But in her current condition, she could not do anything about it right now, especially not with Axl Rose taunting her in the background still. The past, who knew how many hours, had been pure, unadulterated torture, and she's never felt so drained in her entire life. Through the fog in her brain that would not lift or dissipate, she was aware of movement around her. She even understood that it is Urd and Skuld. _Are they leaving?_ She then becomes aware of a weight on her chest. She doesn't necessarily care that it is there, she is way beyond caring at this point. But she still needs to know.

_Take me down_

_To the paradise city_

_Where the grass is green_

_And the girls are pretty_

_Take me home_

"Come along Skuld, that should keep her there for a while so she does not get any ideas." Through the skipping chorus in her brain, she is able to discern that they are in fact leaving. After a few moments of complete silence, she concentrates for a few seconds, and is able to open her eyes. Dimly, she shifts them down to look at the mysterious object. She was confronted by a white figure with golden eyes. It has triangular shaped ears on the top of its vaguely feline head. In its left paw, it is holding a small plaque, and its right hand seems to have some sort of mechanical movement in it, causing it to raise and lower, over and over again, mocking her.

_Oh won't you please take me home, yeah!_

The last two things on Mara's mind before she lapses into unconsciousness were how glad she is to have a couple of days off from work, and how much she now hates cats.

XXX

There were still a few hours until sundown when they left the restaurant. Since they had some time to kill, Megumi had taken Hibiki to someplace called 'downtown'. They had walked along the sidewalk, peering into all the shops and such, looking at all manner of clothing and merchandise. As he recalled, she called it 'window shopping'. At first he thought it was odd that it was called that, since they were not shopping for windows, but after a while he understood the meaning.

And he had found it quite enjoyable, although he was not sure if it was because he had been cooped up in that ship for so long, or because the shops on Taraak were so plain in comparison. In the all male society of his home, everything was about economy and conservation, especially because of the planet's harsh climate. A shop was lucky to have more than four or five different outfits, and never in more than one color. Here it was exactly the opposite. It seemed that there were almost infinite combinations of color, clothing, and accessories. Based in conversations with the women onboard the Nirvana, it may have been similar on Mejere, but he could not imagine that the diversity could come anywhere near this.

And all through their wanderings, she held his hand. Months prior, if this had happened, it would have scared the living daylights out of him. It was something completely unfathomable. Even after they left the restaurant, he had been keeping the panic he felt at the act at bay, not wanting to offend his guide. It wasn't until they made it downtown, and Hibiki saw a plethora of other couples engaging in the same act of holding hands did he finally relax fully. He had seen it on his tour before, but being amongst the people did wonders for calming his nerves.

After they completed their rounds, Megumi had dropped by her apartment. She wanted to get some snacks and drinks to take with them. As she rummaged around in the kitchen, Hibiki had set out to explore what she called the living room. There was a couch on one of the side walls, with several comfortable looking chairs surrounding a short table. Everything seemed to be oriented to a primitive looking console screen. He had thought about activating it to see how they communicated through it, when he had noticed a rather large rodent-like creature watching him.

Unlike most small animals of its like, which would run if they even caught a glimpse of a human, this one seemed to almost be sizing him up. He had experimentally moved around the room, watching it the entire time. It never took its eyes off him. Even when he approached it, it stood its ground, almost as if it knew something he didn't. After a few minutes of the standoff, he heard Megumi approach. It had as well, as it looked over its shoulder when she entered the room. She just waved at the creature, which then, apparently satisfied, bounded off and disappeared behind one of the bookcases along the wall.

Megumi did not give him time to react or comment on that, instead simply grabbing his hand and dragging him out the door. From her apartment, she had driven him through town and onto a road that followed the coast line. He was quite impressed, as he could not have imagined that Earth was so beautiful from the grainy pictures he remembered of the yellow, dead world.

After a while, Megumi found the destination she was looking for, and they had rolled her bike off the road and behind some bushes. She then took him to a small rock outcropping that was just above the beach. White sand stretched in either direction as far as the eye could see. Straight out in front of them in the ocean, the sun lazily made its way towards the horizon. She laid out a blanket and they sat on it. There was no one around but them.

The significance of that was completely lost on Hibiki, as he was completely preoccupied with the snacks Megumi had brought with them. He plowed into them with relish. He especially enjoyed the cheeses she had brought. They were like nothing he had tasted before. He had enjoyed them so much, he almost missed what he come for.

"Hey!" yells Megumi. Hibiki looks up from stuffing his face, the tone of her voice sounded like she was angry. The smile on her face belies that. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

She nods her head on the direction of the ocean. He swallows what he has been chewing, then turns his head to look. His mouth immediately drops open at what he sees. The sun, which has somehow turned almost crimson in color from its normal yellow, is cut in half at the horizon. The sky itself looks like it is on fire from the radiated waves of the star as it continues to slip below the waves. The ocean seems to alternate between the reflection of the sky, which is getting redder by the minute, and its normal, lively blue. The boundaries between explode in the most vibrant purples he has ever seen.

As he sits there mesmerized, the sun finally disappears into the ocean. From beyond the horizon, individual rays of yellow and orange sunlight still emanate out. To him, it seems as if the sun is reaching out to him, stroking his cheek as if saying farewell. It is by far one of the most beautiful things he has ever seen, far surpassing any sunset on Taraak.

As the purples start bleeding into the sky while it darkens, there was only one word Hibiki could come up with that fit what he has just witnessed. "Wow."

"I know, right? That's all I could say the first time I saw it from here, too" responds Megumi, "And you know what they say?" Hibiki immediately turns to her, instantly curious. She is looking back at him with _that_ smile again. "Red sky at night, sailor's delight!" She winks at him as she finishes.

She then starts pulling one of her boots off. "Come on! Take yours off too!" she implores.

Dubiously, he looks back at her. "Why? What are we doing?" he inquires.

She points towards the sand as she finishes pulling off her first boot. "We're going down there!"

With a sigh, he starts to follow suit, albeit reluctantly. "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere," he complains as he complies with her request. His home world was arid and hostile. There were too many ways bare feet could get hurt, so you just didn't do it. Yet he begrudgingly complies anyway as he reminds himself, not for the first time, that he is not on Taraak anymore.

"Hurry up!" cries out Megumi playfully.

Suddenly, Hibiki simultaneously feels the sensation that he is falling backwards while at the same time, his remaining boot lifts into the air and starts to come off his foot seemingly by itself. As he reaches back to arrest his fall, he realizes that Megumi has taken it upon herself to assist him with his task, giggling the entire way as it slips off. She drops his boot and implores him to follow her as she jumps the two feet from the top of the rocky outcrop they have been sitting on, and into the sand below. She turns and faces him, flashing that smile again, and motions for him to follow. "Come on!"

Despite his misgivings, he follows her down into the sand. It was just as he remembered. Still almost scalding hot from the day's sun, it was coming up between his toes, irritating the skin between them. If it weren't for the calluses on the bottom of his feet, he was sure it would have become quite painful after a while as he starts to walk after the dark haired girl.

To his surprise, the sand gets cooler as he approaches the water. At the same time, it becomes more firm. No longer was he sinking in almost ankle deep. He finds he can walk over the top of it, making travel much easier. After a moment, he realizes that the sand is completely saturated with seawater. While it still felt like it would abrade all the skin off his feet, he looks down as he finds that the coolness of the water in the sand is a lot more enjoyable than when he had first jumped in.

He looks up and finds that Megumi has already entered the water, and is standing in a spot where it almost comes up to her knees. Her clothes remain dry though, as the shorts she is wearing barely come down past her hips. She beckons him to join her. He looks down again and sees that he is just outside of the area where the waves of water could reach him. Tentatively, after the previous wave recedes, he takes a step into the area the waves can get to him. After a few moments, another wave comes in and rushes over his feet. The sensation was exhilarating, and it spurs him on.

As he wades in a little deeper, he pulls his pant legs up and then he looks up at Megumi, who is staring back at him with a mischievous grin. Before he can react, she stoops down, plunges her hands into the water as another wave comes in and then sends a shower of seawater his way as she giggles. Hibiki raises his arm up to protect his face. When he starts to lower it, he immediately has to raise it again as another barrage is incoming.

A smile spreads across his face as he attempts to retaliate. Seeing what his intentions are, she lets out a loud laugh and begins high stepping in the deeper water as she tries to get away from him as he sends a shower her way. He laughs at this, and starts after her, using the motion of his feet to kick up spray in her general direction as he goes.

Being in slightly deeper water, she is a little slower than he is at first, so he catches up with her easily. However, he discovers that catching up and actually catching are two separate things altogether. As he reaches out to grab her, she deftly avoids him, forcing him to slide to a stop and restart in another direction. All the while, she laughs gleefully at him each time she dodges.

After the fourth attempt, Hibiki stumbles as she jukes away from him. He ends up face first in the wet sand. To add insult to injury, a wave comes in and covers him, soaking him to the bone. He immediately comes to his hands and knees, coughing and spitting salty water out of his mouth. He looks up to see the dark haired girl standing over him, holding out her hand to help him, grinning from ear to ear. He reaches up and takes it, and she hauls him to his feet.

As soon as he was standing, she pulls him to her, causing him to yip in surprise. Guiding his hand around to her back, she releases it and throws both arms around his neck. She looks deeply into his eyes, the smile gone, she has a more serious look he had never seen before. She then closes her eyes and moves in, putting her lips to his. Hibiki is shocked and frozen in place. The sensations scare and excite him, please and arouse him, all at once. It's nearly overwhelming.

He maintains his composure, though his body is completely stiff from the avalanche of feelings he is dealing with. After a moment that seems like forever, Megumi disengages and looks into his eyes. She then leans forward and whispers in his ear. "Rule number three is that you kiss someone that you _really_ like."

Hibiki flinches at this. This escapade has taken a completely different direction that what he was expecting, although truthfully, he has no real experience to actually know what to expect. He's literally flying into uncharted space now. "I've never kissed a woman before," he whispers after a brief moment.

She draws back and looks into his eyes. "Just do what you have been doing all day, follow my lead," she coos at him with a smile and then leans in for another kiss. As she makes contact, Hibiki concentrates on what she is doing. First, she is just pressing her soft lips to his, moving slightly. He mimics the action as best he can. This seems to get a reaction from her as her hand starts to wander down his back. He then feels her mouth open a little, followed by the sensation of her tongue coming from behind her lips and lightly pressing against his, beckoning him to follow suit.

He does so, and he feels and hears her sigh as she begins to explore the inside of his mouth. She shudders in his grasp as he does the same to her. He wasn't exactly sure if he was doing it right, but the reactions he was getting from her seems to indicate he was. He himself was starting to lose himself in her embrace, as the emotions he was feeling flooded into and through him like the wave he experienced earlier. His concentration slackens as he exults in the sensations. His thoughts drifted back to other times and missed opportunities. His free hand finds its way to the small of her back as he pulls her even closer to him, taking the lead for the first time.

He feels her wandering hand move back up past his neck, into his wet hair, then grab hold. He was so caught up in the moment, he suddenly realizes that he has been holding his breath. He disengaged from her gasping, and she immediately pulls him into her shoulder.

"Oh, Hibiki," she purrs into his ear.

"Dita," was his reply.

A sudden realization hits him as he finishes saying it. He has said _her_ name. The redhead on the Nirvana that so annoyed him sometimes. That followed him around, almost like a lost animal. That cooked for him. That encouraged him when he was down. That always stood by his side no matter what. He had said _her _name. And as shocking as the realization was, it was even more shocking to him that he then decided, at that moment, that he was glad that he had said it.

As he pulled away from Megumi, he could tell that she was not happy anymore. In fact, she looked furious. Her eyes were narrow and her lips were pursed together, almost in a snarl. "Who the hell is Dita?" she growls at him as she jerks herself away. "Your girlfriend?"

Hibiki was unsure what to say or do, so he says the first thing that comes to mind. "Um…..well…not exactly, in fact….I'm not even sure what a girlfriend is."

This only seems to deepen Megumi's anger towards him. "But you like her, don't you!" she bites out.

Hibiki knew the answer to that question. He had made it abundantly clear to himself just moments before. "Yes, yes I do," he replies.

Before he can react, Megumi's hand balls up into a fist and snaps out, connecting with his nose. Blinded by the tears that involuntarily welled up in his eyes as a result of the blow, he fails to see her next move. He suddenly feels both her hands impact him square in the chest, sending him backwards and down, onto his backside and into the water. He sits up, coughing, simultaneously trying to catch his breath and control the blood that has started to trickle from his nose.

"You son of a bitch!" she rants. "You could have told me that instead of leading me on like this!" She then turns on her heels and starts marching up the beach, back towards the rock ledge where the blanket they had sat on was located. He watches as she continues to yell at him over her shoulder, something about wasting the day with a deadbeat who leads unsuspecting girls on for his own perverse fantasies.

He picks himself up out of the water, just in time to see her pushing the bike from its hiding spot, and onto the road above them. He thinks about whether he should go after her, but decides to let her go, and slowly walks towards the road. As he reaches the same rock ledge, he watches as she roars off, taking note of the direction. He looks down and realizes that, in her haste to leave, she left the blanket. He sits down upon it and starts to pull his boots on.

Finishing with that task, he sits cross-legged for a while, staring up at the sky, watching as Earth's single moon makes its way across. The disk beckons him, and his thoughts once again drift back, back to the Nirvana, back to _her_.

Somehow, he needs to find a way to get back home.

* * *

A/N: Song lyrics are from Paradice City by Guns 'n Roses. I obvioulsly do not own that.


	10. Ah! Why Did You Leave?

-10-

In the middle of the vastness of space, the _Nirvana_ skirts along the edge of a blue and red nebula. The ship, a marriage of the Taraak battleship/colony ship _Ikatzuchi_ and the Mejeerian pirate ship commanded by Mango Vivian, is quite a unique sight. The two original ships are combined, one above the other, on a central spire attached to the backs of the two ships. From the center of the spire, two arms hold additional sections for weapons and crew quarters. They were created from debris that was carried along when the Peaksys performed the space jump to escape the explosion of the Taraak missiles meant to destroy them.

After the transformation, the bridge of the pirate ship, which was connected underneath the _Ikatzuchi_, was unusable, forcing the crew to use the Taraak ship's bridge. The Captain's chair is raised above the rest of the seven stations that control the ship, four of which reside just below the Captain's station. The fifth, the navigator's station, sits on the end of a gangplank approximately 50 feet long that originates from the center of the main command deck. The remaining two stations sit on either side of where the walkway starts.

Probably the most unique feature of the ship is the large garden area below the bridge. The area comes complete with a large grassy area, trees of varying sizes, and bushes throughout and around the perimeter. There is even a small, shallow pond. While the reason for its creation remains a mystery to the crew, they have enjoyed it immensely. It was a very welcome diversion from the sterile corridors of the rest of the Nirvana, as well as a convenient place to have parties and special occasions. A large transparent dome covers the entire section, giving anyone there a breathtaking view of the space around the vessel.

It is here that Keiichi and Belldandy, with Dita in tow, find themselves, drawn to it after they discovered its existence. The Goddess, upon seeing it, found it to be so beautiful that it inspired her to begin singing. With the help of Holy Bell, their chorus was causing new growth to sprout all around the trio as goddess and angel serenade the garden. Keiichi and Dita sit on the ground behind Bell. He has his eyes closed, taking in the voice of the goddess he loves, while the red haired girl stares at the brunette goddess, enchanted by the melodies that she sings, the colorful nebula overhead, and the flowers of all shapes, sizes, and colors that seem to be spontaneously emerging from the ground around them.

As the song ends, Belldandy's audience stands up. She turns as her angel sinks back into her back and finds Keiichi looking back with a loving smile on his face. Dita, on the other hand, looks like she is trying to hold back a torrent of joyful tears, her lips quivering with the effort.

"That was beautiful as always, Bell," beams Keiichi.

"Thank you," replies Belldandy with a smile. "I have not been inspired to sing like that in a very long time." A touch of sadness creeps into her voice as she finishes saying that, and she looks away.

Keiichi steps forward, reaches out, and caresses her cheek while turning her head back to face him. He had certainly not missed the change in her demeanor, and he deduced that it was because of the loneliness she had experienced since his dissapearence. In fact, he had noticed sadness in the way she had been carrying herself since she had come to help him with her older sister. No one else except her platinum haired sister would have noticed. It was something that only those close her would recognize. Because of it, he is determined to lift her spirits.

He wants to tell her that he is here, now. That if he is going to be stuck here, he couldn't think of anyone else he would rather be with. So many things came to mind. Someone behind them cleared their throat, and with a start, he loses his nerve. He turns and the color leaves his face as he sees Meia walking up behind Dita.

Belldandy tenses and steps up next to Keiichi protectively as she recognizes the woman who was interrogating him before she arrived. Dita turns and shoots a wide smile at the newcomer.

"Leader! Did you hear Mrs. Goddess?" exclaims the red haired girl excitedly.

Meia nods to Dita, then looks at the goddess. "That was the most beautiful singing I have ever heard," she says. Keiichi looks at her, dumbstruck at what he sees. Even though she does not smile, the emotion on her face is obvious. Keiichi tries and fails to reconcile the blue haired woman he sees now against the hardened warrior that had been grilling him mercilessly during her questioning of him after they found him.

Belldandy relaxes and smiles. "Thank you very much!" She snakes her arm around Keiichi's and leans her head against his shoulder. "Since I found Keiichi, I've been happier than I have been in a long time," she says, then gestures to the garden surrounding them. "This place reminds me so much of our old home that I felt the need to sing to it."

"And look at what happened!" cries out Dita with glee as she throws herself down on the ground. The others gawk at her as she starts waving her arms and legs, as if she were trying to make snow angels in the flowers that had sprouted. Belldandy giggles at the sight. Keiichi glances over at Meia and is nearly floored when he sees an honest to goodness smile on her face. It's only there for a moment, though. The mirth on her face changes to something a little more solemn as she faces him.

"Keiichi, I wanted…" she starts, then pauses. Biting her lip, she seems to be fighting some inner battle over what she wants to say.

Dita takes notice and sits up, shifting herself around to a kneeling position on her knees. After a moment, Meia sighs heavily. "I want to apologize for the things I said during the interrogation."

Keiichi is caught off guard by her sincerity, but quickly recovers. In the very short time he has known the blue haired woman, she has been stoic and business like. She was definitely out of her element here, looking much the same way he does when he is called upon to translate something in his German class at NIT. He takes a step towards her and reaches out his hand. "I'm not sure there is anything you need to apologize for," he says. "You all have lost someone that you care a great deal about. I can't say that I would do anything different in your place if the same thing happened to Belldandy or one of her sisters."

Meia gives Keiichi a half smile, takes his hand, and gives it a firm shake. "You are an honorable man, Mr. Morisato," she says.

Dita stands and jumps up and down in excitement. "Yeah! Mr. Keiichi and Meia are friends now!" she exclaims.

From behind everyone, they hear someone else's voice. "So, here you two are!" says Urd as she strolls up and joins the group. She looks around, then cocks her head to the side and winks at her sister. "Leave it to Belldandy to find a garden in the middle of outer space."

"It is quite beautiful, isn't it," replies the blue-eyed goddess.

From next to Belldandy, Dita fidgets nervously, then blurts out; "Miss Goddess, did you find out how to get Mr. Alien back?"

The silver haired goddess sighs. "Unfortunately not," she says sadly, crossing her arms across her chest in resignation. "Mara seems to have covered all the angles here."

Meia looks at Urd with a concerned look on her face. "Who is this 'Mara' person?" she asks. "Is she someone we should be worried about?"

Urd glances at Meia. "Mara is a very powerful demon that my sisters and I have been dealing with for an extremely long time. She is unique in that not only is she one of our worst enemies, she is also a good friend." Urd let's out a sigh before she continues. "Unfortunatly, I have not been able to find her. That means we cannot force the issue because only Mara and Hibiki can reverse the wish."

Keiichi hears a loud sniff from the redheaded girl, and sees a tear roll down her face. "And he chose this," she says sadly, barely above a whisper.

Meia crosses over and puts a comforting arm around her younger crewmate. "And there is nothing you can do with your own magic to reverse this?" she asks.

Keiichi speaks up before the goddesses can; "I've had some experience with this. The wish is protected by this thing called the System Force. If anyone tries to do something that counters the wish, the System Force will do something to counter and enforce it." He shudders a little, thinking back to some of his own run-ins with the System Force in the early days after he made his wish for Belldandy to stay with him. "Sometimes it can be rather violent about it."

Dita lets out a heavy sigh, but maintains her composure. Keiichi can only imagine the warring feelings she must be experiencing. He can tell that she has deep feelings for the missing boy. But at the same time, she is trying to reconcile why he made the wish to leave. "What did we do to drive him away?" she asks to herself, even though the others can hear her. She turns to leave, but Meia holds firm.

"I think he made a rash decision, and we need to trust that he will make the correct one in the end," says the blue haired woman. Dita looks back at her and nods, and Meia releases her. "It's getting pretty late, can you show them to their room?"

Dita nods while Keiichi's face turns white. "Do we only get a single room?" he asks with trepidation in his voice.

"Unfortunately, we only have a single room available." She looks at him expectedly. "We figured since you have had experience cohabitating with women that it would be ok. It's not a problem, is it?"

Before he can say anything, Urd sidles up to his side opposite Belldandy. "Yeah, it's not a problem, is it Keiichi?" she teases, then winks and strikes a provocative pose.

Keiichi swallows and glances at Belldandy, who just smiles sweetly at him. "Um, yeah…. it's….. not a problem," he sighs, defeated.

XXX

A few minutes later, Dita is leading Keiichi and Belldandy through the corridors of the _Nirvana_. On their way, Urd had found a reason to excuse herself, leaving the two lovebirds to share the room alone, much to Keiichi's consternation.

Belldandy smiles at the prospect, but she is torn. She is not the naïve goddess that Keiichi knew from his time. Much has changed since his disappearance. But she knows that he is still the naïve young man that she remembered from way back then, so she understands that he would be extremely uncomfortable if she made any aggressive advances. Despite what she wants, the blue eyed goddess decides she needs to take things slow. Despite all this, she is somewhat disappointed that Urd was not there. She needed to tell her sister about what she had found. The repercussions of her earlier discovery could be far reaching.

Stuck in her thoughts, she did not realize they had stopped until Keiichi jerked her back before running into Dita. She blinks back to reality, and looks at the young girl, who still has a forlorn look. Glancing around, Belldandy realized that they were standing in front of a tall door that looked like it was the entrance to a hanger of some type.

"If you don't mind, I wanted to stop here first before we went to our rooms," says Dita without turning to look at them. She walks the hanger, leaving Bell and Keiichi to follow.

"Whoa," exclaims Keiichi as they enter. To the right, they see a large, yellow and white machine that has a vaguely humanoid shape. A portable stair case and platform is set up to provide easy access to the open cockpit in its chest. On top of the mech, its head, which has a distinctly human face, stares menacingly off into the distance. To their left are a number of similar looking machines standing against the wall, each painted in one pastel color or another. Unlike the yellow one, these machines' heads only had a large, single lens in place of an eye, making them look more like a cyclops than anything.

"This is Mr. Alien's vanguard," says Dita as they approach the yellow and white one.

As they get closer, off to the right of the machine, are a number of flowers bundles, trinkets, and cards laying together. Belldandy recognizes it as sort of a make-shift memorial for the boy and smiles. There must be a lot of love on this ship for him. She watches as the red haired girl stoops down and examines some of the cards. "Many of these wish for him to return safely," says Dita sadly. She stands and turns towards the goddess and the man from the past. "They would probably think differently if they knew he chose to leave," she bites out, a tear running down her face. "What could we have done to drive him away like that?"

Dita looks at Belldandy expectedly as the brunette goddess considers her reply. "Sometimes, giving someone too much attention can be a bad thing," she says, which causes Dita to make a sour face.

"I've heard that one before," she replies dejectedly while kicking the floor plate underneath her.

"It's very important to grant someone their space," continues Belldandy, looking for a way to get her point across without causing the girl more grief. "There is an old saying where we come from; 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder.'"

The red haired girl's blue eyes gain some of their sparkle back when she hears this. "So you're saying that the longer he is away, the more he will like us?"

Beldandy smiles, "In a way, yes," she says as steps towards Dita. "Many times, one does not understand what they have lost until it is actually taken away from them." She wraps her arms around the younger girl in a firm embrace. "We must trust those we love to make the right decisions, and continue to support them even when they make questionable ones."

"Trust me, she has a lot of experience with that one!" cries out Keiichi in agreement.

Belldandy and Dita look up to see that Keiichi has climbed up onto the platform and is admiring the cockpit on the yellow and white vanguard. "This thing looks like the mecha from some of Skuld's mangas!" he exclaims as he examines the instruments on the underside of the door. It is open like a clamshell, allowing easy access. "There does not seem to be much in the way of controls in it, though" he observes.

Dita disengages from Belldandy and starts up the stairs to the join Keiichi on the platform. "Mr. Alien told me once that he uses his mind to control it," she explains as she reaches the top. "That's probably why he's the only one who can use it."

Keiichi looks back to Dita. "Why is that?"

"Parfet said it probably happened when the Peaksys changed it," explains Dita. "Ever since that happened to Mr. Alien's vanguard and to my dread, they have been able to combine."

"Into the Vandread you mentioned earlier," says Keiichi, remembering their conversation before his unfortunate run-in with the blonde dread pilot.

"That's right!" exclaims Dita. "Meia and Jura's dreads can combine with him too, but I think he likes to combine with me the most!"

Belldandy smiles and approaches the stairs to join them, glad that the girl's melancholy feelings have disappeared for now. She then pauses as she considers what Dita had just said. She had felt some residual magic permeating the ship when she arrived with her sister, but had ignored it. Now she wonders if it was related to the changes that the machines had undergone and the discovery she's made. She listens for a moment as Dita explains to Keiichi, in her own simple way, how they had discovered the abilities of their machines, then slips around the stairs to stand next to the feet of the vanguard.

Placing her hands on the cool metal, she chants a quick spell; "_Make thyself known to me, oh spirit. I, Goddess First Class Belldandy seek an audience with thee_."

She extends her senses out, and hears nothing at first. "_Hi, whatcha doin?"_ asks a distinctly feminine voice after a moment.

Belldandy smiles, in her mind trying to reconcile the image of such a masculine machine with a woman's voice. She is not one to judge, though. "What are you called?"

"_The One calls me Partner."_

She had heard Dita mention before that Hibiki called the machine his partner. Her curiosity peaked, she continues. "And who is The One?"

_"He goes by many names, Hibiki, Mr. Alien, and a whole bunch of other ones that are just plain mean. But I call him The One."_

"And why do you call him that," asks Belldandy.

_"Because The Mistress told me he was The One who could operate me."_

Now she was getting somewhere. Hoping that the spirit would be able to help unravel the mystery some more, she presses on. "Who is The Mistress?"

_"She is the one that created me."_

Belldandy bites her lip. It was a dead end. She had engaged in discussions with enough spirits to know that its logic would become circular if she pressed. They were only too happy to share their awareness of what it was they were being asked. But their experience was very self-centric, so they generally only knew information that pertained to them and their environment. They came into being, and that was all they knew, aside from some possible instructions that were given immediately after. Then they were left to fend for themselves.

As she considers what to ask next, Belldandy realizes that it has become very quiet. She looks around and sees Keiichi and Dita's heads, upside down, hanging from the edge of the platform behind her. She suppressed a giggle at the sight. Rather than come down the stairs, which she surely would have noticed, they had kneeled down on their hands and knees and were now watching her intently from their comical position.

"Are you talking to Mr. Alien's vanguard?" asks Dita.

_"Hey! Is that The Idiot?"_

Shocked by what she just heard, Belldandy cannot answer Dita. Instead, she turns back to the vanguard. "You should not call people names like that," she scolds the spirit.

_"What? That's what The One calls her! I know it a bad name, but I also know for a fact The One only uses is now because he likes her."_

Bell glances at Dita, then back to the machine. She understood how sometimes, people would turn bad names around and use them as terms of endearment. The spirit was more perceptive than she first thought if it had picked up on that. "How do you know that?" she asks it.

_"I can see it in his heart and in the way he speaks of her now." _

A feeling of warmth invades goddess. It is the first real confirmation that Hibiki has feelings for the ditzy red head, and it gives her the first real hope that everything will be alright in the end.

_"Tell her I want to unite with her Partner! He's my favorite! Do you think The One has united with The Idiot? They should if they haven't."_

Belldandy's eyes go wide as she hears this. She reminds herself that spirits of this type can be very direct at times. There was a high level of excitement and even arousal in what it had said. Blushing a little, she looks over to Dita, who is staring back expectedly at her, still waiting for an answer to her question. Bell takes her hand off the vanguard and turns to the young girl. "Yes, actually, I am speaking to her."

Dita's eyes go wide at the prospect. "Wow! Goddess powers must be amazing!" she gushes. Instead of getting up and using the stairs, she wiggles around and through the guard rail of the platform she and Keiichi are on, then tries to summersault around to land on the floor below. She does not quite make it, though, and lands unceremoniously on her hind end.

Jumping to her feet as if nothing happened, the redhead rushes up to Belldandy. "What does it say about me?" she asks, barely able to contain her excitement.

"Well, she says that she thinks Hibiki likes you," replies Belldandy, causing Dita to clasp her hands together in excitement. Recalling the additional information the vanguard had given her, she blushes again, grateful that the subdued lighting under the platform would hide it. "She would also like to unite with your partner."

Dita squeals with glee when Belldandy says this. "I knew I was his favorite!" she exclaims as she starts to twirl.

Belldandy hears an amused snort from beside her and turns to see Keiichi, who had wisely taken the stairs after witnessing Dita's ungraceful drop from above. He smiles and winks at her, giving her an 'I know that's not the whole story' look. She blushes again, and returns his wink. She steps to him, takes his hand, and rests her head on his shoulder. They watch for a moment as Dita dances around, giddy with excitement.

Without warning, alarms begin sounding throughout the ship, accompanied by flashing red lights. Startled, Dita falls in a heap on the floor and then jumps up. The trio stands rooted in place as an announcement comes over the intercoms.

"_All dread teams to the launch bay! Incoming enemy attack!"_

* * *

A/N: So I struggled with this one, mostly because it took me a while to think of a good enough excuse to get Bell and Keii down to the vanguard hanger. Then I came upon the idea of Dita questioning Hibiki's reasoning for his wish (an understandable reaction, me thinks) as well as the makeshift memorial, and it just fit. Maybe a slight OOC on her part, but she recovers nicely I think.


	11. Ah! Have a Little Faith!

-11-

"All dread teams to the launch bay! Incoming enemy attack!" yells BC into the intercom, then switches it off. Immediately, the ship is rocked violently by an explosion as a number of enemy ships dart past the bridge. "Get those shields up!" she orders as she fights to regain her balance. After doing so, the ship's second in command turns to the sensor station that sits to one side of gangplank that connects the deck to the navigator's station. "How many enemies are we talking about?"

Amarone Slaintheav, the dark skinned radar operator turns to her. "I cannot confirm enemy numbers, Commander," she replies. BC could tell she was worried. "But I have detected cube types as well as clamshell motherships. They keep darting in and out of the nebula, so there is no way for me to lock on to them."

BC nodes to Amarone. Her attention is diverted as a door behind the captain's station opens. Mango Vivian appears in a motorized chair that rolls along a path that docks her into the cubicle. The elderly captain looks at BC. "What have we got, Commander?" she asks as the ship shudders from another volley.

"An unknown number of enemy units using the nebula for cover," replies BC.

Mango nodes and looks up through the dome covering the bridge. "It's a classic ambush, it would seem." She pauses for a second then calls out; "BART!"

In front of her, an image materializes. On it, the bald head of the ship's navigator, Bart Garsus, looks back expectedly at the elderly woman as he replies. "Orders, Captain?"

"Get us away from that nebula!" she replies.

"With pleasure, Captain!" he replies before his screen disappears.

BC braces herself as the ship begins to move. Despite its size, the _Nirvana_ is extremely maneuverable. As she feels the vessel shift and try to put some distance between it and the nebula, she notices a number of enemy ships streak past the clear shield above them. Another shift in the _Nirvana's_ path tells her what is happening.

"Captain!" announces Amerone. "The enemy units are shifting to block our path!"

BC grits her teeth as the radar operator confirms her suspicions. _They don't want us to get to far away from the ambush site._ "Bart! Fire the main weapon!"

Bart's image again appears in front of them, his face looking a little panicked. "It's no good Commander!" he screeches, his face filling the screen. "I can't lock on to anything!"

BC looks over to Celtic Midori. The teal haired bridge operator, who today is wearing a soldier's camouflage outfit, nods to confirm. "I'm sorry Commander, the enemy's first attack took out our targeting systems. Damage control teams are already working on it," she reports.

The _Nirvana's_ second in command bites her lip. It could not be worse news. The ships primary weapon, a series of beam cannons that line the edges of the ship, was first used only recently above a dismal, contaminated world. Bart had unlocked its power by channeling his motivation to protect the planet's inhabitance, specifically a sick little girl that he had befriended. Since then, they had used it one other time to great effect. It had raised moral quite a bit to know that they had a weapon that could compliment the power of the Vandreads. Now they had neither.

BC's attention is diverted to the Captain as she lets out an exasperated sigh. "It never ceases to amaze me how quickly they adapt," she muses.

"Looks like we will need to rely on the dreads this time," replies BC.

Mango looks down at her second and nods. "Unless there is some sort of intervention, I think you are right."

XXX

Just as the announcement to scramble the dread teams finishes, the ship lurches, sending Dita, Keiichi, and Belldandy crashing to the deck. To Keiichi, it felt as if he had given too much throttle to one of the Motor Club's racing bikes, and it had unceremoniously dumped him on his backside. As he moves, he feels Belldandy under him. Panicking, he flips over to check on her, and sees her smiling back at him. He lets out a sigh of relief.

As they try to get to their feet, Keiichi looks up and sees Meia rush into the hanger on a dead run. She pauses only for a second to help the redhead to her feet. "Come on, Dita!" she yells breathlessly over her shoulder as she sprints past them.

Keiichi follows her with his eyes and sees three large ships that look like fighters docked at the far end of the hanger. He had been so enamored with the vanguard that he had failed to notice them. _Those must be the things they call dreads._ They were stacked on top of each other. A bulky blue dread sits closest to the ground. To Keiichi, it looks more like a talk than a fighter. Sitting in a cradle above the blue one is a sleek looking white dread. He could tell that one is built for speed and maneuverability. On the third level above that sits a red dread that reminded him of a two fingered claw. As Meia reaches the area below the dreads, she steps on to a small platform.

Dita starts to run after Meia, but pauses and looks back over her shoulder at the Goddess and her charge. "But Meia, what about them?"

Meia turns towards them as the platform starts its ascent and looks down at Dita. "They will be safe in here, we need to get out there!" Keiichi watches as it stops at the white dread, where she jumps into the cockpit.

From behind them, Jura appears and starts pushing the redhead towards the dreads. "Let's go, slow-poke," she teases. Dita gives them a worried look, but relents and starts running to the large blue dread. She reaches it as Jura boards another platform similar to the one Meia used, and climbs a ladder to its cockpit.

As Jura begins to rise, she looks down at Keiichi and Belldandy. "You guys should get clear!" she yells as the platform reaches the red claw dread.

When the three dreads begin to power up, Keiichi feels a tug on his arm. He looks to see Belldandy, with a concerned look in her eyes, beckoning him to follow. He takes another glance over his shoulder and sees the white dread begin to rise out of the cradle it was sitting in. He swallows hard, then turns and quickly follows Belldandy, who is running back to the yellow and white vanguard. He feels a rush of wind as they reach the platform and when he turns, the white one is gone. As he and Belldandy watch, the red claw dread rises out of its cradle, then rockets down the hanger. As it disappears, the blue one follows.

Keiichi looks at Bell, who is standing next to the leg of the vanguard. She looks back at him, he can tell she is worried. "I can sense a lot of fear on the ship," she says, then lets out a sigh.

He can feel massive vibrations through the deck plating. Nothing like what they experienced before, but Keiichi can only assume that the reason for them is that the starship is taking fire from some unknown enemy. _This must have been how sailors in submarines felt when they were being attacked by depth charges._ He sits down on the deck and leans up against the leg of the Vanguard. "Based on what Dita has told me, that's totally understandable without this guy out there."

"_Who are you calling a guy?!"_

XXX

As Meia and her dread leave the hanger, she starts to turn to starboard to come alongside the _Nirvana._ Because of the special nature of her dread, as well as Jura and Dita's, they have to launch from a hanger that opens in the aft section of the ship. As she turns, she looks around and sees that nearly three quarters of the other dreads were already in space. The remainder are still in the process of launching from the Reg bays in the lower section of the ship that used to be the women's pirate ship.

She reaches up and chimes her communications. "Dread teams! We're on our own on this one," she says as she continues to circle the great ship. She starts to see some explosions in the distance as some of the dreads are engaged by the enemy forces. "Team one, on me, formation delta. Jura, you take team two and protect the _Nirvana_. Barnette and Dita, you're with me!"

"_Roger!_" replies all of the other pilots in unison.

She turns away from the _Nirvana_, and through the shields protecting it. As she does so, Barnette and Dita come up alongside. Her com chirps, and Barnettes image appears on the screen.

"_Meia_," says the green haired pilot. "_How are we going to…..you know….without…"_

"We just have to step it up," replies Meia, cutting her friend off. They had been in desperate situations before, and Hibiki had been able to bail them out in some way. Now that he was not here, she could tell from some of the general com chatter that the moral of the other pilots was down.

On another screen opposite the one that Barnette is on, Dita's image appears. "_We have to do our best, or Mr. Alien won't have a home to come back to!"_ she says with a determined look on her face.

Meia thinks about this for a second. _Dita's right of course_. She looks down at her screen and sees Barnette nod in agreement, a new look of determination that mirrors the red head's. "Right, we have to protect our home," says Meia.

Dita and Barnette's images disappear from her screens as she turns her dread, locking on to a group of enemies that are below. She dives toward them, with the other two dreads close behind.

XXX

Startled, Keiichi stands and scrambles away from the Vanguard. There really wasn't any sound to react to, the voice he heard was straight in his mind. Wide-eyed, he looks over to Belldandy, who is giving him a puzzled look. "It talked!" he cries out.

A look of realization and a smile crosses her face. "Of course it can, I gave the spirit inside permission to speak to us." She steps toward him and puts a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "It's just like the Shinden, do you remember?"

Keiichi smiles and scratches the back of his head in embarrassment. "How can I forget," he replies, thinking back to the one and only time he piloted an aircraft. "I had a heck of a time trying to convince it to land before it ran out of fuel and crashed."

She reaches in and takes his hand, then guides it back to the vanguard. As soon as he touches it;

"_I asked you a question."_

"I'm sorry," he replies. "I just made an assumption based on your appearance, I won't do that again."

"_Hrmph, The One says that assumptions are like…"_

"HAH..YEAH..we know," cuts in Keiichi before she can go any further. "I've heard it before!" He turns to Belldandy and smiles. "SHE is a sassy one, isn't she!"

The blue-eyed goddess returns his smile. "Yes, I think she is somewhat of a reflection of the attitudes and desires of her pilot."

_"I'll take that as a compliment! Speaking of which, where is he, there is a battle going on out there!"_

Keiichi groans. He had been hoping that the vanguard was not aware of what was going on. Apparently, its awareness was much keener than he though. He glances over to Bell, who only shrugs at him. "Well, he isn't here. There was an….accident, and….I replaced him." The last part sounded more like a question as he struggled for the correct words. He did not think that the vanguard would quite understand the concept of a magical being coming in and using its powers to swap a person from the past with one of the current present.

_"Hmm, wait here, I will be right back."_

"Wait….what?" exclaims Keiichi, but there is suddenly no response. He looks over to Belldandy, who shrugs again.

"She had definitely left us," she says as she focuses more of the vanguard as if searching for it. "I have never seen where a spirit can leave its container before."

They both frown and stand in silence for a few minutes, waiting for the spirit to come back. After a moment, Keiichi actually feels its presence return, causing him to startle a little.

_"The Mistress says that you and he were switched by a demon."_

Keiichi mentally chastises himself for again assuming something about the vanguard. It was much more aware of its surroundings than even Bell knew, as he can tell the surprised look on her face right now "Yeah, I wasn't aware you knew."

_"Oh, I didn't, but she told me the story. You want to know what else she told me?"_

"Um, sure," he says, as he swallows down a nervous gulp.

_"She says that this one time, I can let you drive me! Isn't that great!"_

"YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?!" cries out Keiichi in surprise. He takes a step back and looks over to Belldandy. "Surely she can't be serious!"

"I think she is," replies the goddess.

"What?" he replies. "I don't know anything about running one of these things, I barely understand what's going on around me right now!" Keiichi drops down on the deck and stares at the floor, dejected.

Before he realizes it, Belldandy's hand appears under his chin and gently raises his head. Somehow, she has moved over and is now stooping in front of him without him noticing. "Keiichi, remember, you barely knew how to fly before you flew the Shinden. He helped you, she will help you as well," she says as she takes both of his hands and holds them lovingly in hers. "The Shinden had confidence in you, she has confidence in you." The Goddess then leans in and kisses him on the forehead, then looks at him with her glowing smile. "And I have confidence in you."

Keiichi relents. _I just can't say no to her._ "Ok, I will do it," he says, mustering up his new found resolve. He scoots back over to the leg of the vanguard and places a hand on the foot. "Tell me what I need to do."

"_Oh goodie!"_

XXX

On the bridge, BC tries to manage the controlled chaos of the battle as Captain Mango gives orders. The dread teams had been trying unsuccessfully to break the blockade that the harvester craft had put around them, without much luck. As soon as one formation was broken, another would appear out of the nebula to take its place. They were trapped.

Without warning, the ship lurches, nearly sending the Commander to the deck. "Amarone! What was that?" she cries out as she steadies herself.

"Unknown Commander, whatever it was, it came from the nebula!" replies the dark skinned radar operator.

"Dammit," mutters the second in command as she stands at her full height. She looks over to Celtic. "What's the status on the repairs to the targeting system?"

Celtic looks back with a worried look. "Repair crews last reported that it will be at least ten more minutes before they can have it back up!"

BC bites her lip to keep from cursing again. Her reply is interrupted by another explosion that causes the _Nirvana_ to shift to port, and tossing the beleaguered Commander to the deck.

"Shields are down to sixty percent!" cries out Celtic.

"Tell the repair crews they have five minutes, IF we last that long!" barks BC as she gets back up. "Belvedere, what's the status on the dread teams."

"I've completely lost contact with dread four," replies Belvedere Coco. BC detects a hint of sadness in the blond woman's voice as she makes her report. Everyone on the bridge knows what that means. "Dreads twelve and fourteen are out of action and returning to the Reg for repairs."

"Ezra, contact Meia, tell her we need them to concentrate on making us an opening so we can get away from the nebula," orders BC as she turns to the communications station. To emphasis her point, the _Nirvana_ lurches again under the assault of whatever is firing at them from inside the nebula.

As the commander once again picks herself off the deck, Belvedere yells out. "Captain, the vanguard!" she cries out, almost in shock.

"What about it?" responds BC.

Belvedere swivels in her chair and faces the Commander. "Mr. Morisato is requesting permission to take off!"

"What?!" exclaims BC in shock. No one had been able to drive that vanguard other than Hibiki. Everyone assumed it has something to do with what the Peaksys did when it was changed that allowed only him to fly it. Now, Keiichi Morisato, had figured out how to do it.

"Well, well, well, sounds like that man from the past want to make himself useful!" says Mango Vivian. She gives the _Nirvana's_ second in command a warm smile. "I don't see why we shouldn't let him try at this point."

"Right," replies BC. She turns to Belvedere with a smile of her own. "Tell him permission granted and good hunting."

A few moments later, they see the vanguard fly out in front of the _Nirvana_. Immediately, it is set upon my three cube types. BC winces, thinking back to the first time Hibiki took the yellow and white machine into combat. It didn't start out too well. She shakes her head. "I hope he knows what he's doing."


	12. Ah! Innuendo and Destruction!

-12-

Meia rolls her white dread to port, keeping pace with a cube type mecha she had picked up moments before. The machine, which looked like a flat box with long, spindly, tentacle like arms and legs emerging from underneath, tries to dive away. She easily matches the maneuver, and smiles in satisfaction as her targeting computer chimes to indicate a positive lock. She opens the guard on top of the control stick, and presses the button underneath, sending a missile streaking towards the target. She then rolls to starboard as the missile hits its mark, causing the enemy to disappear in a fireball.

"_Meia, on your six!" _cries out someone on the general com.

Without thinking, Meia pulls back on the stick, causing her dread to suddenly climb. Looking over her shoulder, she sees two cube types firing at her and trying to follow the abrupt maneuver, but having trouble keeping up. As she starts to roll to port to escape, one of the cube types explodes, forcing the second to disengage.

"Thanks Barnette," she says over the com as the green haired pilot's dread races past.

_"Someooooone help! I can't shake him!"_ comes a plaintive cry.

Recognizing Dita's voice, Meia looks around frantically for her blue dread. She finally locates it in the distance below and to the starboard, and gives chase. Following Dita closely is one of the blue fake vandreads that the harvester fleet generated as they adapted to the pirate's abilities. As Dita finishes an S-turn trying to evade the humanoid shaped mech, it easily paces her.

"Dita, don't panic, I'm right with you." Says Meia as she comes in behind it. It suddenly dodges out of her sights as it continues to follow Dita, who is barely evading it as it fires at her.

_"Hurry Meiaaaa!" _cries Dita frantically.

Meia pushes the stick hard as she tries to keep up with the duo. Each time she tries to line up the large blue menace, it dodges out of the way before she can get a target lock. While they were not as fast as the cube types, the blue ones were much more maneuverable. "No good, switching to guns," she says to herself.

Suddenly, the blue enemy scores a direct hit on Dita's dread, causing it to spin wildly out of control. "Dita!" screams Meia as she fires a burst at the enemy, causing it to break off momentarily. She watches as the blue dread spins out of control for a moment, then rights itself and banks hard to starboard. Meia lets out a sigh of relief. Most of the other dreads would have been severely damaged or even destroyed from a hit like that. But Dita's dread was more heavily armored than any of the others. It simply shrugged off the hit and kept going.

However, that armor came at the expense of maneuverability, and Meia grits her teeth in frustration as she sees the blue enemy reenter their deadly dance. She chimes her com and opens a private channel. "Dita, this isn't working. I can't get a shot."

Dita's image appears on the screen. She is sweating profusely as she continues to try to evade the menace stalking her. _"What can I do?"_ she replies, desperation seeping into her voice.

"Be strong," she replies, trying to reassure the younger woman. "When I say break, I want you to break hard right."

"_Roger!"_ replies the beleaguered pilot.

After a few more moments of maneuvering, the trio straightens out their flight paths a little. Meia sees her opportunity. "NOW! BREAK BREAK BREAK!" she yells, then throws her stick hard to starboard. To her satisfaction, Dita does as she is told, the blue dread mimicking her turn. She lines up her sights on Dita's dread, and opens fire. As she expected, it is the perfect lead for the enemy craft, as it runs into the projectiles she is sending towards it. An explosion rips one of its arms off, and it starts tumbling out of control. Meia pulls back on the stick and loops up and around. Like a great raptor, she descends on the stricken enemy from above and finishes it off with another burst from her cannons.

"Good job, Dita," she says as she skirts around the dissipating explosion. "Are you seriously damaged?"

"_No, nothing serious," _replies the redhead. Her image in the screen shows how relieved she is._ "Thanks, Leader."_

"Don't thank me until we figure out a way out of this mess," replies Meia, then closes the channel. She then spots three cube types that are harassing another dread and locks them in. As she prepares to engage, she hears a beep on her communicator.

"_Meia, _Nirvana_, please respond," _comes the voice of Ezra, the ship's communications specialist.

Meia chimes her com and the brunette haired woman's image appears on her screen. "This is Meia, I read you," she replies.

"_We need the dread teams to open a hole for the _Nirvana_," _she says, a hint of worry in her voice. _"We are taking fire from inside the nebula, our targeting systems are down so we cannot respond. We need to get away but they…..wait…WHAT? Stand my Meia."_

She hears a chirp in the comm systems indicating the line was closed. However, her image remained on the screen. Meia watches as Ezra speaks to someone, then turns her head away for a moment. Then, without warning, her image disappears. The com chirps again, and Belvedere's image appears on the screen. The blonde operator gives her a sly smile. _"Meia, we need you and Dita to come back and provide cover for the vanguard."_

The blue haired pilot stares at the screen, looking at the blonde woman as if she had spoken to her in a foreign language. "The vanguard?" she replies, not believing what she heard. "Who's flying it?!"

"_Morisato," _replies Belvedere, who then cuts the connection.

_He's much stronger than I thought._ Meia chimes the com and relays the order to Dita. She then turns back towards the _Nirvana_ to rendezvous with their surprising comrade.

XXX

With an unsteady gate that resembles a child that is just learning, the yellow and white vanguard walks toward the barrier separating the hanger from the vacuum of space. Inside the cockpit, Keiichi is sweating profusely as he concentrates on moving the massive machine. As the spirit had instructed, it was a matter of projecting your thoughts to make it do what you wanted to do. _I think I'm doing pretty good._

"_Do you walk like this is normally?"_

Keiichi furrows his eyebrows and grits his teeth in frustration. "I thought I was doing pretty good."

_"Pfft, yeah, whatever. You're trying too hard." _

"Now what's that supposed to mean?" he snaps at the spirit, causing the vanguard to stop as he loses concentration on what he is doing.

_"It means you are thinking too loudly! It's distracting. You need to relax and pretend you are taking a quiet stroll or something. I don't need to be shouted at to do what you want me to do."_

Leaning back in the cockpit, Keiichi closes his eyes and takes a couple of deep breaths. Then he reaches up and takes the two control handles, and imagines himself walking down the sidewalk next to Belldandy at Nekomi Tech. Immediately, the vanguard starts moving again, this time with a more natural walking motion.

_"Now you're getting it!"_

It steps up to the shield and stops. Inside, Keiichi looks at the large view screen at the vastness of space. "Whoa," he says to himself, a little trepidation seeping in.

_"I know, right? It's so cool!"_

"Not exactly what I was thinking, but OK," he replies. "So now what?"

_"For flying, you need to use the controllers in front of you. You use them to augment your thoughts as you fly."_

Keiichi looks at the instrument screen below the main viewer. It is a very advanced touch panel, that includes information on speed, fuel, ammunition, orientation, and a multitude of other things he has no clue about. On either side of the screen are triangular shaped hand controls. He looks out the main viewscreen, then sighs as he mentally prepares himself for what's next. The space all around him is dizzying and the inability to tell up from down is causing him a small bout of nausea. He takes a few moments to prepare himself. _If she believes I can do it, then I can do it!_

Pushing forward on the controls, he hears the engines of the vanguard start to rev up. When they reach what he thinks is their peak, he and the vanguard step through the barrier and into the void.

XXX

Belldandy watches as the vanguard rockets off. She smiles to herself, feeling a sense of pride as Keiichi goes to the aid of his former captures. As she stands there in reflection, she feels a familiar presence approach.

"So, he's off then," says Urd from behind her.

The blue eyed goddess lets out a sigh. "Yes, he is off," she says, crossing her arms across her chest as if she were holding herself. "I just wish there were something I can do." A tear runs down her cheek.

Urd steps closer to her younger sister and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. Belldandy reaches up and places her hand on top of it, then leans her head over to rest on them.

"Hey, don't worry!" says the eldest Norn in her best comforting voice. "We already kind of know how this turns out, don't we?"

Bell turns to face her sister, giving her a downcast look. "I know he needs to do this himself so he can be prepared for this future, but I just can't keep from thinking of something my mentor said a long time ago."

Urd looks at Belldandy with a puzzled look. "And what was that?"

"He said 'The future is not set,'" replies Bell, looking away from her sister and shifting nervously on her feet. "'With every question, decision, or action, there are an infinite number of possibilities that result in an infinite number of outcomes.'" She looks back at Urd with a look of extreme worry on her face. "I'm worried we did something wrong that could cause this to happen differently than what we were told it should happen."

Urd gives Bell a sour look. "Ok, that was way over my head," she says, shifting to a mischievous smile. "Besides, I bet Keiichi is having fun out there!"

Urd's attempt to cheer Belldandy up fails as she looks away from her older sister. The sense of doubt she has been feeling since this began hits a crescendo, nearly causing her to break down and cry. Before she finally loses it, Urd grabs her chin and turns Bell's head back to face her. "I've seen that look before. I think we need to just worry about doing what is right for Keiichi in the here and now. We don't have any experience with the future. The one we need to be talking to about that is…."

Belldandy's eyes go wide as she feels the approach of someone familiar. By the look on Urd's face, she could tell she felt it as well. "Speak of the goddess," quips the silver haired diety.

XXX

As soon as the vanguard steps through barrier, the engines kick in full force. Keiichi is thrown back and pressed against the seat due to the g-forces. To him, it feels like he is in a drag race, only a hundred times worse. Involuntarily, he lets out a scream as he struggles to maintain control while he guides the machine around to the front of the Nirvana. It was quite a proposition to continue his flight path, the controls were quite a bit touchier than he expected. The slightest movement seems to cause the vanguard to veer in another direction.

_"Wheeee! Isn't this fun!"_

"Not the kind of fun I was thinking of," bites back Keiichi as he overcorrects again and nearly loses control. "Can you try not to be so touchy on the controls?"

_"What? Oh yeah, sure! The One likes it like this, but if you don't, I can accommodate."_

Much to his relief, the vanguard becomes a little less responsive to the control stick, which he finds easier to control. Keiichi lets out an exasperated sigh. "You mean it was that easy to….." An alarm rings out in the cockpit. Keiichi looks at the viewscreen. Three red dots are converging on his position. "I take it that's not good?"

_"OF COURSE ITS NOT! EVADE!"_

Keiichi's moment of indecision costs him as the vanguard is rocked by explosions. The jolt throws him against the side of the cockpit. Ignoring the shooting pain in his shoulder, he regains his composure and turns the control hard over, causing them to dive. The three attackers, cube type robots, zoom past him in different directions, then reorient themselves for another attack run.

_"Remember, flight is controlled by the sticks, movement is controlled by you."_

Keiichi nods as he keeps an eye on his three pursuers. They had split up and were coming at him from either side and above him. He mentally maps out what he wants to do and turns the controls, setting his trajectory to intercept the closest robot. As they approach, the cube type fires its cannons at him, causing him to dodge slightly to the right. He returns fire with the vanguards wrist cannons, but the enemy machine dodges as well. Before he can react, the vanguard's shoulder clips the cube type, sending both machines spiraling out of control. The other two enemy units swoop in and open fire, peppering the vanguard as it spins.

Keiichi grits his teeth in pain as what feels like electricity shoots through him. After that subsides, he still feels a lingering pain in his left shoulder. It's the same one on the vanguard that was impacted during the collision. "Dang it, why does that hurt," he complains as he rubs it.

_"When you are in here, I am an extension of you. So if I am damaged, you will feel it."_

Keiichi rolls his eyes in frustration. "Now you tell me," he says. His irritation is interrupted, though, as the proximity alarms go off again. Without thinking, he pushes the controls forward and too the right, causing the vanguard to dive in the same direction. Two cube types sail past, barely missing the yellow and white mecha.

_"That's it!"_

"That's what?!" he exclaims as he dodges another.

_"Just now, you trusted your feelings and let go instead of trying to think things through so much. See how that works?"_

_I think I do! _Keiichi clears his mind as another cube type approaches. As he does so, it feels like is awareness expands, manifesting in the machine itself. He sees the enemy fire at him and he simply reacts, easily dodging the projectiles. As they come together, he hooks his arm under the shoulder of his attacker and then pivots his hips. In the same motion, he yanks the cube type over his own shoulder and throws it at another robot that is attacking from a different direction. As the two enemies collide, he fires at them with the vanguards wrist cannons, causing both to explode in a spectacular fireball.

"Thanks, Keima," says Keiichi to himself, remembering some fond and not so fond memories of his youth. His competitiveness and love of motorcycles is not the only thing the Morisato family patriarch had imparted on his son.

Another cube type rushes at him from the front. When it gets into range, it tries to grab him with its pincer like claws. Keiichi blocks the attempt by bringing his arms up and out across his chest, then hooks the machine's arm with his left. Simultaneously, he pulls and punches it in the eye with his right, burying his arm elbow deep into it's body. He feels a sense of exhilaration as he actually senses the internal workings of the stricken enemy. Using his hand, he gropes around until he feels something large and important as the machine struggles against him. He takes hold and yanks, pulling it out through the hole he created. Immediately, it stops moving and drifts away lifelessly.

Taking in a deep breath, he crosses his arms across his chest and releases it slowly in a long sigh. "For a second there, I felt like I was one with the vanguard!"

_"Was it as good for you as it was for me?"_

Before he can reply, the sensors scream at him again as another cube type rushes in from behind. The only thing he has time to do is brace for the impact. Suddenly, though, the red dot blinks out, and he feels a light concussive force rather than the jarring impact of the enemy. He blinks in confusion, then sees two blue dots appear on the control screen.

On his view screen he sees the approach of the white and the blue dreads from the hanger. An image of Meia appears in the middle right. "_That was great Morisato, but don't get cocky," _she admonishes with a slight smile on her face. _"You had me worried there for a moment."_

Another image appears in the middle left of the screen, this one of Dita. _"I wasn't worried at all! I knew Mr. Keiichi could do it!" _

"_Right, do you think you can handle combining?" asks Meia. "We need something with a little more punch to make an opening for the _Nirvana_ to get away from the nebula."_

Keiichi considers for a second, but it interrupted.

"_Blue! Hint-hint, wink-wink, nudge-nudge!"_

"Shush! You be quiet!" Keiichi admonishes the vanguard. Looking up, he realizes both of the women are giving him an inquisitive looks. "Oh! Not you guys, sorry!" Before he can say anything else, the cockpit is illuminated in light. The brightness subsides to a point in the distance.

"_What now?"_ exclaims Meia.

XXX

On the bridge of the Nirvana, BC is roaming the bridge, trying to maintain calm. The situation was growing increasingly desperate as the unknown enemy continued to pummel the shields from inside the safety of the nebula. Celtic's last report was that shield power was approaching twenty percent. An order to Parfet earlier to divert power from weapons to the shields had bought them a few more minutes, but that extra time was now getting short. She steps over to Belvedere's station as another blast rocks the ship. "What's the status on Keiichi, Meia, and Dita?"

"The two dreads just now rendezvoused with the vanguard," replies the flight operations specialist. "Keiichi fought off three cube types, and Meia destroyed a forth that was also harassing him."

"Tell them to get a move on!" says BC. Before she can add something additional for emphasis, she is distracted as the bridge is bathed in light. Shielding her eyes, she looks up through the transparent dome as the brightness subsides to a point of light. She hears the Captain make a remark questioning whether this was a signal of hope or doom, but ignores it.

She steps over to Amerone's station. "What can you make of it?"

"It's some sort of anomaly, but the sensors cannot make much of it," replies the dark skinned woman, furrowing her eyebrows I frustration. "We can read and see that it is there, but it's not giving out any of known radiation that we can detect."

"Understood," replies the second in command. She straightens up and calls out to Meia, whose image appears on the main viewer in response. "I want you to investigate the anomaly after you make sure that Dita and Keiichi successfully combine."

"_Roger," _replies the dread team leader. Her image disappears from the screen as she closes the connection.

XXX

After receiving instructions from Meia, her image disappears from Keiichi's view screen. "I wonder how we combine?" he asks himself out loud, not realizing he still had an open connect to Dita.

_"That's easy, you just fly towards the blue one and think about combining and it will happen!"_

_"That's easy, you just fly towards me and think about combining and it will happen!"_ replies Dita at the same time as the vanguard.

Keiichi shakes his head as the instructions come at him in stereo. Now he has two of them telling him what to do. He admonishes himself for that thought, remembering that he is thankful for the support they are giving him, considering how things started out when he first arrived. He pushes the controls forward and the vanguard once again takes off. As he flies, the blue and the white dreads come up on either side of him. He eases the controls over so that he comes closer to the blue dread, and thinks to himself about combining while at the same time wondering if he is doing it right.

Not knowing what to expect, he is startled to see a white light envelope him. Although he cannot see, the brightness is not something he would say is painful to look at. More like he was looking through a window that was completely covered with snow. After a moment, the white light subsides, and he begins to take stock of his surroundings.

Instead of the cramp, claustrophobic cockpit of the vanguard, he is now sitting in something much larger and open. Looking around, he first realizes that he feels a weight on him. When he tries to look down, he sees nothing but a large mop of red hair. It is then that the realization hits him that Dita is now sitting in his lap. Not only this, but their hands are intertwined over two control globes on either side of them. He begins to panic as everything comes at him at once, jerking his hands away and trying to stand up in the cockpit as he starts to hyperventilate. As he does this, he smashes his head into the canopy above and falls back into the seat grabbing his head.

Dita turns back to him and smiles. "It's ok, Mr. Keiichi!" she says, trying to comfort him as much as possible. "Mr. Alien and me do this all the time!"

As he tries to relax, he can't help but worry and hope that Belldandy does not see them like this. He didn't want to think about what another one of her jealousy storms would do to this machine, especially with him in it. His thoughts are interrupted as he hears the vanguard again.

_"Oh Blue, I've missed you so much!"_

_"Me too, babe. So, who's the new guy?"_

XXX

As she circles, the combined Vandread Dita emerges from the light. The blue robotic warrior sports its customary arm lances and shoulder mounted energy cannons that are now stowed on its back. Meia chimes her com system and connects to the newly formed vandread. Dita's smiling face appears on her screen.

_"We did it, Leader!"_ she chirps happily.

Behind her, she could tell the Keiichi was not terribly pleased with the new arrangement. She watches as he frets behind the redhead, almost as if he were looking for an escape route. "Mr. Morisato you need to focus!"

_"That's easy for you to say!"_ he shoots back. _"You've seen Belldandy when she gets jealous!"_

With a smirk, Meia replies; "It could be worse, if you and I had combined, you would be sitting in MY lap!"

She sees Keiichi roll his eyes at that, but it seems to have the desired effect as he calms sown. "Now listen," says Meia. "I need you two to punch a hole through the harvester's lines. The _Nirvana_ needs to get away from that nebula."

"_Roger!"_ replies Dita, and their screen blinks out. She immediately chimes her com again. The image of an obviously vexed blond woman appears. "Jura, how are you holding up?"

_"Not good Meia!"_ replies the blonde diva through clenched teeth. _"I broke a nail!"_

The blue haired dread leader shakes her head in amusement. She had never really understood her friend's vanity, nor did she want to. "Focus Jura, I need you to take team two and assist Vandread Dita with clearing out a way for the _Nirvana_ to get away from the nebula."

_"Roger that,"_ replies Jura, then lets out an exasperated sigh. _"So, I saw that he made it out here without killing himself."_

"Yes, and he nailed three cube types singlehandedly," replies Meia.

Jura sighs again. _"Seems like all the good ones are already taken." _

"There's always Bart!" quips Meia with a sarcastic smirk. Seeing the fury in the blonde's eyes, she quickly closes the connection. In the time that she had known Jura, she was quite persistent when she put her mind to something. Of course, none of the women on the _Nirvana_ actually knew what to do with the men, but it still did not stop the blonde diva from trying. She rolls her dread over and sets a course to investigate the anomaly that appeared a few moments before.

XXX

Keiichi sighs. "You mean you talk too?!"

_Of course! We all can since we were all created by the Mistress._

Dita shifts around and looks at him. "Of course I can…" she starts, then pauses as she realizes something. "You can talk to them too, like Ms. Goddess?"

"Um, yeah, I guess you can say that," he replies as he reaches up and scratches the back of his head.

"Wow! I wish I could talk to my dread," she replies as she turns back around front. "I wonder what it would say?"

_"I would say you need to learn to fly better, and wear more revealing outfits!"_

_"HEY! I'm right here you know!"_

_"C'mon babe! You know I only have eyes for you!"_

Keiichi groans to himself as he listens to the two entities talk to each other. He focuses front, trying to block them out and quietly thanking his goddess that Dita cannot hear them as well. On the control panel in front of them, Jura's image appears.

_"Dita, Keiichi,"_ says the team two leader, immediately getting their attention. _"The enemy's lines seem to be weakest in quad one. Lets punch a hole there for the _Nirvana_."_

"Roger!" replies Dita. As Jura's image disappears, she then glances up at Keiichi. "Ready?"

"As ready as I'm going to be!" he replies with as much fake enthusiasm as he can. "I just hope these two behave."

_"No promises!"_

He shakes his head in frustration, then tries to relax, allowing Dita's fingers to once again intertwine with his on the white control pads. As he does this, he feels her connect to him. Not a complete joining of minds, but a merging of their emotions, skills, and experience. He feels Dita's confidence added to what little he has, the piloting abilities she has learned from Hibiki added to his own. With her help, he now understands more about flying the vandread that he ever thought he would learn. For the first time, he starts to feel genuinely optimistic about the outcome, and that nothing can stop them.

In his new, rejuvenated state, he urges the vandread forward, feeling Dita respond in kind. He smiles as the machine quickly accelerates in the desired direction. Unlike the vanguard, there seems to very little manual control of the vandread.

"_Are you ready for me, babe?"_

"_More than ready, you big blue stud!"_

Keiichi grimaces internally as he hears the lusty reply. He looks down at the control panel at the radar display and sees a number of blue dots approach them. As he looks outside the cockpit canopy, he sees Jura's red dread on their right, accompanied by three other yellow dreads. On their left are four others, two light blue, one pink, and one purple. He then sees about thirty or forty red dots on the control screen. As they get closer, he starts to be able to make out the enemy units in front of them. They are mostly cube types, with three large blue mechs that resemble their vandread. Behind all of these is a large, clamshell looking machine that Keiichi can only guess is in control of this group.

"_Break and engage!"_ orders Jura over the general com.

"_Ok, here we go!"_

"_I want it!"_

Keiichi continues to try to drown out the two entities as he focuses on the task at hand. At about the same time Jura orders the group forward, the enemy units start to rush in. He and Dita immediately find themselves engaged by two of the three fake vandreads. As they barrel in, Keiichi takes a pot shot at them with the arm cannons, but they evade. Seeing them both respond in kind, he and Dita nimbly spin to port, out of the way of the attack and into the path of one of the onrushing enemies.

Keiichi sees it start to hesitate, almost as if it were panicking. Still in the midst of their spin, he raises, and them brings the right arm down on the head of the fake, neatly splicing it in two.

"_Ohhhhh, I feel it!"_

Keiichi groans as the vanguard lets out another cry of what can only be described as ecstasy as he and Dita use the vandread's arm canon to finish off the stricken enemy.

"What's wrong Mr. Keiichi?" asks Dita

"Oh, you definitely DON'T want to know!" he quickly replies, still trying to focus on the task at hand as three cube types join the remaining fake vandread.

XXX

As Meia approaches the anomaly, she stares at the yellow, orange and red swirling mass. In the middle of it is a round void that can only be described as a hole. As she gets closer, she can see a ring around the hole that is expanding. She gapes at what appears to be some type of writing around the edge of the circle. She checks her sensors to see if anything had changed, then chimes her com.

"_Nirvana_, Meia," she says. "Sensors remain unchanged, no readings. There appears to be some sort of void in the center surrounded by a ring of script I cannot read."

_"Acknowledged Meia, hold position and continue to monitor," _replies Belvedere.

The dread leader frowns and grits her teeth. She didn't like being on babysitting duty during a battle, but understood that they wanted their best pilot on point if the anomaly turned out to be some type of harvester trap. As she comes around the swirling mass, she notes that it seems to be getting thinner. As she comes around to the side, it virtually disappears. It s_eems to exist only to two dimensions._ It slowly appears to re-expand as she comes around it, where she notes that the 'back' of the anomaly looks the same as the 'front'.

As she almost completes her orbit of the anomaly, she is momentarily blinded by a flash. As she blinks her eyes to clear the spots, she realizes that something has emerged from its center and is now rocketing towards the battlefield. As she engages her engines to follow, she checks it course and then hits her com. "_Nirvana_! I have an unknown contact that has emerged from the anomaly inbound on an intercept course to you."

BC's image appears on her control screen. "_Attempt to make contact. If you cannot, then destroy it!"_

"Roger," replies the blue haired pilot. BC's image disappears from the screen as she starts to accelerate after the unknown contact. As she starts to catch up, it appears to be unlike anything she has ever seen in a ship of this size. It was more wing than anything, with no discernible fuselage. The wedge shaped, red and white machine looks like it would be equally at home in atmosphere as it obviously was here in space.

As she comes up alongside the craft, she sees a cockpit on the point of the wedge, with a helmeted pilot inside. She switches her com to its general channel. "Unknown craft, this is dread team leader Meia. Please identify yourself and state your intentions."

There is no response, and she sees no reaction from the pilot. After a few moments, she opens up again. "Unknown craft, respond immediately or you will be fired upon."

Again, no response on coms, but the pilot does turn to look at Meia and gives a two finger salute. The red and white craft then begins to accelerate past the white dread. "Oh no you don't," she says, pushing her craft to keep up and falling in behind the other.

Unbelievably, the unknown bogey is outpacing Meia's white dread. She grits her teeth and pushes harder, trying desperately to keep up. As she does so, she activates her targeting system. Much to her chagrin, it refuses to lock on to the alien craft. "It's almost as if it's not there," she mutters to herself in frustration. She glances down at the sensor screen on her control panel and sees that it is showing the same. Despite being almost as large as her dread, the strange craft is a ghost according to her instruments.

Meia switches to guns as she sees that they are quickly approaching the _Nirvana _and tries to line up on the bogey. _Going to have to do this the hard way._ As she opens fires, it nimbly dodges out of the way and accelerates even more, leaving the dread leader behind. She watches in horror as it easily flies through the _Nirvana's _shields and launches some sort of torpedo at the ship.


	13. AH! Intervention

-13-

BC sat down at the first officer's station, much to the relief of the other operators. She brings up two displays so that she can monitor the situation a little closer. On the right screen is the battle. Vandread Dita, with Keiichi at the helm, had waded into the conflict and had made a huge dent in the harvester's lines. But a dent was not what they needed right now. It almost seemed as if when they destroyed one enemy unit, two more took its place. They appeared to be making some headway, though. Unfortunately, with the pounding the _Nirvana_ was taking from within the nebula, she may be forced to pull them back and have the vanguard combine with Jura's dread so that they could erect a shield to better protect the ship. The bad part of that plan was that it would remove Vandread Dita, which was now a major part of their firepower without the great ships weapons.

On the left screen, she is monitoring Meia's progress with the unknown craft that was inbound. The white dread had been able to keep up initially, but now it was suddenly pulling away. As it flew past the raging battle and towards their ship, she felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Even if they did have targeting sensors, they would not have been able to get a lock. This was confirmed earlier by Amerone when she reported that the craft did not show up on sensors at all.

As she watches her personal screens, she nearly jumps out of her seat as Meia's image appears on the main viewer, startling her. "Nirvana_! It's shot some sort of torpedo, its inbound to you now!"_

Sensing the extreme worry in her voice and seeing the panic in her face, BC has only seconds to react. She slams her fist down on the ship's internal com button. "ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR IMPACT!" She then steadies herself against the component ring and waits for all hell to break loose.

XXX

The two goddesses can feel the tension level rise as the announcement is made throughout the ship. Instead of following instructions though, they begin walking through the hanger and towards the shielded opening. As they get closer, they see a red and white, wedge shaped craft enter their field of view.

"There she is!" cries out a hopeful Belldandy.

"And there she goes," chirps Urd as the craft streaks past without stopping. She looks at her younger sister. "I'm going to have a little chat with her when this is all over. She needs to get over it."

Bell sighs, a little dejected. "It's ok Urd, she will come when she is ready."

As they look on, a torpedo shaped craft enters the hanger. It approaches them and slows, coming to a stop and floating a few feet away from them. After a moment, it starts to shift and reconfigure itself. A familiar bulbous head with a black bullet shaped hat appears, the engine seem to drop down underneath, and a seat appears. Behind the head, what appears to be handlebars pop up. The red and white machine looks like some sort of personal speeder like vehicle from one of the Star Wars movies.

"Banpie!" exclaims Belldandy, and rushes up to the robot. Urd follows suit.

An arm uncurls from underneath the head, reaches out, and gives Belldandy a loving squeeze on her arm. It did not matter how many versions of Banpie were built, they always seemed to have a soft spot for the middle Norn. She smiled sweetly at him as a return gesture. Banpie nods, then turns to Urd. With the same arm, it points to the silver haired goddess and motions to her. Urd looks at the red and white robot scooter, puzzled as to why it was motioning to her, and points to herself with a questioning look.

The robot nods and repeats the gesture, this time adding emphasis and indicating that Urd needed to get on. The white haired goddess looks at the robot incredulously. "You want me to get on?!"

Banpie nods.

"And what, fly out there?!" she says.

Banpie nods again.

"With a battle raging on, are you nuts?" replies Urd, putting her hands on her hips for emphasis.

The red and white robot's eyes blink twice. He reaches down and opens a compartment on his underside and produces a small, red and white doll. He holds it out in front of him as if to show the goddesses what he had. The small doll, with its raven colored hair, bears a striking resemblance to the youngest Norn. With his other hand, Banpie reaches up and slowly yanks on a pull string on the doll's back. "Urd, get on Banpie now, I need your help!" it squeaks after he lets go.

Urd harrumphs, and crosses her arms across her chest. "And just exactly why?" she asks.

Banpie pulls the string again. "Because if you don't, I'll tell Father what you and Troubadore were doing to cause Mount Saint Helens to erupt."

Urd stares daggers at the robot and doll. "You wouldn't….." she replies nervously, then glances at Belldandy, trying to give her best cover-up smile. She looks back to Banpie, who flashes his eyes twice, while nodding at her. "Well, if you put it that way." She says in resignation, then steps over and mounts the robot. She looks over the controls and notes in the upper right that it says Banpie Space Speeder 3000. She rolls her eyes then looks again to familiarize herself with the controls.

As she does so, Bell steps over beside her. "Do be careful," she says, concern in her voice.

Urd gives her sister a thumbs up and a smile. "Don't worry about me. You need to worry about the brat after this is all over with. She and I are going to have a little heart to heart."

Bell gives her sister a wane smile, then steps back away from the speeder. A blue sphere forms around it as Urd engages the controls, causing it to rise. She speeds off, through the barrier and in to the beyond. Bell turns and rushes over to the wall and sits down. She chants a short incantation, then passes out.

XXX

Back on the bridge, BC blinks when the expected explosions don't happen, then looks around at the rest of the bridge operators. When she does, she notices them all quickly look back at their stations. She stands and clears her throat, then pushes the ring that houses the station's controls up and out of the way. Glancing up at the captain, she sees Mango smirking back at her.

"I felt that all the way up here!" says the elderly leader, trying to break the sour mood that had been permeating the bridge for some time.

BC smiles as she hears snickers from the others on the bridge, then looks over to Amerone, the sensor operator. "Where did it go?"

The dark skinned woman quickly pulls up some information, and then looks back to BC. "It appears to have slowed and enter the aft bay!"

"Celtic! Get a security team down there on the double!" orders BC, urgency on her voice.

"Roger!" replies Celtic.

"Commander!" calls out Amerone. "Something just left the aft bay!"

"Is it whatever it was that was shot at us?" replies BC as she steps back over and stands behind the sensor operator's station.

"Seems to be the right size," replies Amerone. "It's headed towards…."

Before she can finish, everyone is startled by a gasp from the captain. "Well what do we have here?" says Mango as BC rushes up to her station. In front of the captain, bowing politely is a minute version of the goddess Belldandy.

"Oh, I apologize for startling you!" says the miniature goddess as she comes back to her full standing height of about six inches. "I just wanted to let you know what our sister Skuld has arrived to assist you!"

Mango eyes the mini-goddess with a critical eye. "Is that who is in that unidentified craft that just fired a torpedo at us?"

"That was not a torpedo," replies Belldandy. "That was Banpie."

BC comes up alongside the captain and looks down at the diminutive figure. "What's a 'Banpie'?"

Belldandy smiles up at the two onlookers. "He is a friend. He and Urd are also going to join in as well. Please do look out for them!" That said, the little figure curtsies and disappears in a puff of smoke.

BC and Mango look at each other in confusion, not knowing exactly what to say or do. Another blast from the nebula shakes them out of their reverie. "I guess we should call off Meia," says BC as she steps away. She then turns back to the captain with a smirk on her face. "Looks like you got your intervention."

"Yeah," replies the captain. "I was just not expecting it to be a divine intervention!"

XXX

Meia stares incredulously at the screen as BC relays the message to her regarding the identity of the unknown craft's pilot. Since it had launched what appeared to be a torpedo at the _Nirvana_, Meia had redoubled her efforts to bring it down, nearly hitting it with her guns a number of times with manual targeting. She had very nearly done it again when BC interrupted. "If I get a chance, I am going to have a word or two with that goddess about showing up to a battle unannounced."

On screen, BC nods and closes the connection. Meia rolls her eyes as she turns her white dread away from the goddess' red and white fighter. As she does so, she notices three cube types bearing down on her. Gritting her teeth, she pushes the control stick forward, putting her dread into a steep dive in an effort to evade them.

As she watches them form up behind her, she curses under her breath. However, all three of them are simultaneously consumed by fireballs as she looks back to keep track of them. Blinking the spots out of her eyes, she sees the red and white craft come up from behind and form up on her left. Meia sees the goddess in the pilot's seat give her thumbs up. The wedge shaped craft then accelerates again, launching another volley of missiles that send another approaching group of cube-types to oblivion. Meia sighs, then moves to follow.

XXX

As she maneuvers through the battle on Banpie, Urd thanks her stars that they appear to be too small for the enemy ships to bother with. Several of the smaller enemies the others call cube types did momentarily take notice, but then decided they had bigger fish to fry, leaving her and Banpie unmolested as they flew.

However, Urd barely took notice. She didn't want to be out here at all, and Skuld's reasons for asking her and not Belldandy were beyond infantile. As she again curses her youngest sister under her breath, she is interrupted by the previously mentioned goddess over a radio like receiver at the base where the seat meets Banpie's chassis. "_Urd, this is Skuld!"_

"Yeah, I hear ya," replies the silver haired goddess, simultaneously rolling her eyes.

_"Listen, I know you're upset with me right now,"_ says the youngest Norn. _"But I need you to do something, or none of these people, including Keiichi, are going to survive!"_

XXX

Panting from exertion, Keiichi eyeballs a harvester fake of the red claw dread. Dita also reacts, in synch with his every move. The blue vandread shifts as it flies, raising its right arm and fires the cannon attached to it, holing the enemy and causing it to break up and explode. He grits his teeth as he tries to hold down the embarrassment of what comes next, the vanguard's spirit crying out in another fit of pleasure.

While they had made a dent in the enemy numbers, they were not making any head way, either. As they destroy one, another emerges from the nebula to take its place. The bridge operator Celtic had been imploring them to pick up the pace. He was not sure how they were going to do it, though. A sudden burst of static fills the cockpit, threatening to break his concentration.

"_Hey, who are you?"_

Keichi frowns, confused at the question. "There's nobody else here."

_"You are kind of interrupting something….uhg, OK FINE!"_

Still frowning, Keiichi looks down at the control panel and sees a communication window pop up. At first all he sees is static, then a burry image begins to appear. He watches as it clears up to reveal a woman wearing a red and white pilot's helmet with a pointed visor on the top. Looking closer, she appears to be vaguely familiar. Recognition dawns on him as he sees the markings on her cheeks. "Skuld?!"

_"Yep, its me!"_ replies the youngest Norn, giving him a big smile and two fingers in a V.

"But your…you look like…" stammers Keiichi, not quite believing what he was seeing.

_"Yeah, yeah, four hundred years will do that to someone!" _she says happily. Keiichi had almost forgotten what the adult Skuld looked like. He had gotten a preview many years before when the trio of goddesses were cut off from yggdrasil. The result had been Skuld progressing in age to a beautiful woman of about the same age as Belldandy. In fact, if it weren't for the different facial markings and almost black hair, he might have mistaken her for his beloved goddess.

"Who are you?" asks Dita, who is confused about what's going on.

"My name is Skuld, I am Urd and Belldandy's younger sister," replies Skuld. She then leans in and scowls back at Keiichi's copilot. "And you better not be doing anything perverted with him or you'll be sorry!"

Dita squeaks and jerks her hands away for a second, blushing furiously. Keiichi growls and grabs her hands back and places them back on the control pad. "It's not like that and you know it!" he snaps back at the screen.

Skuld waves her hand dismissively. _"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I need you two to get down to the nebula and help Urd. She is going to try to force whatever it is that's attacking your ship out, and your heavy firepower is what's needed to finish it off."_

"Whats she going to do?" asks Keiichi.

_"Not sure, but you know her. Its either going to be spectacular, or fail spectacularly,"_ replies the youngest Norn.

"All right, just tell us where she's at," he says. "We'll do our best."

_"Sending the coordinates now,"_ replies the raven haired goddess_. "Oh, and by the way…It's good to see you again."_ When she finishes, she closes the connection.

Keiichi shakes his head. It was all still a little disconcerting, all this time travel. To him, he had just seen Skuld the other day when she had once again gone after him for getting a little too close to Belldandy. She was still barely a teenager in appearance then. Now she was a grown woman, and clearly in the middle of this fight. As he looked down to confirm where they needed to go to meet up with Urd, he is startled as a red and white wedge shaped fighter screams past the blue vandread. It releases a volley of missiles that takes out a number of enemy units that were converging on them. He and Dita take that as their opening, and disengage from the dogfight to go find Urd.

XXX

As she paces the red and white craft in her white dread, Meia is impressed. It seems to have an unlimited supply of missiles as it fires volley after volley into the harvester ships. Each one easily finds its mark, leading her to believe that the tracking systems on them were much more advanced than anything the _Nirvana_ could load on the dreads. _It makes sense, considering where it probably came from._

As they fly past Vandread Dita, she can't help but think it was not making any difference, though. The seemingly endless stream of new enemy units from the nebula easily keeps pace with the rate they are being destroyed. Indeed, they were seemingly locked in a war of attrition, pitting the firepower of the _Nirvana's _dread squadrons against the numbers of the harvest fleet. As of right now, they are losing. She had received word of three more dreads being disabled and having to retire from the fight.

Her thoughts are interrupted as four cube types flash past her and take up positions behind the goddess' craft, which starts to accelerate. Meia grits her teeth and maneuvers behind the four, looking for an opportunity to take some of them out. Then, ahead of her, barely in sight, she sees goddess' engines move while the craft continues on it path, rotating underneath. Suddenly and without any warning, the wedge shape craft comes to an almost dead stop, then accelerates backwards. Cursing under her breath, Meia pulls her flight stick back hard, causing her dread to climb in order to avoid a collision.

As she looks behind, she sees that the pursuers had been caught completely unaware as well, and had been sent to oblivion. The only evidence of their previous existence were the fading fireballs where they had once been. As Meia brings her dread around, she can see that the goddess' wedge shaped craft was somehow reconfigured. The engines were now attached at the bottom of what could only be described as two legs, and the exhaust nozzles have expanded and look more like feet now. In addition, much to the dread leader's surprise, two arms had appeared on either side of the cockpit, one of which is holding what appeared to be a rather large gun.

The hybrid vehicle then accelerates and dives into the middle of another group of six cubes types and attacks. Meia brings her dread around to assist in the engagement, but realizes it is futile. She won't make it in time. Not because the cube types had the upper hand with their overwhelming force, but because they were completely outclassed. The goddess' craft seemed to be performing some sort of aerial ballet, spinning, bouncing, and moving to and fro. The deadly dance was over almost before it started, leaving the six harvest craft in wreckage.

Suddenly, one of the harvester's fake vandreads that resemble the blue Vandread Dita appears. For a moment, Meia is worried as the craft takes a swipe at the goddess's craft, but it deftly rolls out of the way. Then the dread leader looks on in surprise as the wings of the vehicle fold back behind it, and the fuselage splits in two, revealing a head. The cockpit is rotated down to be the chest, and a cover slides over the canopy. Now, the craft has a completely humanoid shape, resembling a vanguard more than anything, leaving her to think that the previous configuration was a just an intermediate mode.

The blue haired pilot looks on in wonder as the new vanguard easily blocks several blows from the fake, then jams its gun the enemy's chest and fires. Holed through, the blue fake stops moving. It is ushered off by a swift kick that sends it spinning away, followed by a quick burst from the red and white vanguard's gun. As soon as that is completed, the vanguard quickly turns and engages another of the fake vandreads, with similar results. As Meia watches the carnage, for the first time she starts to feel optimistic about the outcome.

XXX

Urd's flight continued unmolested, and she was now skimming along the edge of the nebula. As she does so, she expands her senses, trying to sniff out the enemy ship. So far she was not having any luck.

"Where the hell are you," she mutters to herself as she comes up empty again. As if to answer her, an energy beam lances out from within. She looks up and sees the bean strike the _Nirvana's_ shield, causing it to illuminate bright blue. She can see that holes have formed on parts of the shield not directly impacted. The glow fades as the energies from the hit dissipate. _Not much time left._

Now that she saw where the beam came from the nebula, she at least has an idea of where to start. She moves to hover over where it came from and once again tries to see if she can detect the presence of whatever is attacking them. As she reaches out, she can sense something, but it's too undefined to pinpoint. Her concentration is broken as another attack strikes out at the _Nirvana_. The shield again flares blue as it struggles to contain the burst, this time failing. The beam strikes home on the starboard arm from the bottom, blasting through the top, and causing the ship to lurch to port from the impact.

_Got to go, now or never. _Urd stands up on Banpie's seat, then raises her arms above her head and begins an incantation. _"Nebula before me, I call upon the spirits that reside within! Hear my voice! Know the will of Urd! Gather unto yourselves the power of motion and friction! Entrust thy energies TO ME!" _

Bluish orbs appear and orbit around her as Urd begins to twirl her arms in a circular motion. At the same time, a large number of whirlpools composed of the gasses and dust of the nebula begin to form. As they spin faster, lightning bolts begin to streak up from their centers and impact her. The energies dance over Banpie's protective shield and are channeled into the orbs, causing them to glow brightly, then split in two. The more lightning that comes to her, the more they split until there are over twenty.

Without warning, a beam strikes out from the nebula, this time aimed at her. However, its energies are only absorbed by the powerful spell, added to what she has already gathered. She smirks down at where the beam came from. _Finally got your attention, didn't I!_

As the number of orbs nears fifty, she stops the twirling motion and straightens out her arms above her. One of the orbs flies into her hands, it is about the size of a large beach ball. She finishes the spell:

"_I summon: IONIC STORM DEPTH CHARGE!"_

With her right hand, she hurls the orb down into the nebula. When she does this, another orb takes its place and she throws it with her left. She repeats this over and over. As she does, bright flashes emanate from within the nebula, and an up swell of the gasses and dust that make it up follows. Once again, the beam lances out at her, and once again it is absorbed. An evil grin crosses her face.

_Gotcha!_

XXX

Vandread Dita's transit of the battlefield was anything but easy. Cube types and fake vandreads molested them the entire way. With each enemy they vanquished, the frenzied cries of the vanguard spirit continued to grate on Keiichi's nerves. To him, it seemed like the pitch and fervor were beginning to increase, almost as if some sort of climax were approaching.

Another cube type rushes them, trying to latch on to the larger mecha. Dita and Keiichi maneuver and capture the enemy with the left hand, spin around it, and grab it with the right. They dig in with the vandread's fingers, seeking purchase. When they have it, they pull the small mech apart, then throw the two pieces into the path of additional onrushing cube types, destroying them in the process.

_"Oh my god, YES! You do that so good!"_

As Keiichi tries the purge the latest round of wailing from his mind, he is interrupted by a gasp from Dita. Being where he is right now in his mind, he instantly worries that the vanguard's assault on his senses were somehow affecting her. His fears are allayed when she points out ahead of them. "Look!"

In the blue and red mass of the nebula, they start to see swirling patterns emerge. Lightning begins to emanate from the whirlpools as they spin faster, coalescing in a single spot above.

"That must be where Urd is," says Keiichi. He and Dita then start to move closer as a yellow beam lances out and strikes the point where the energies are coming together. Expecting some sort of explosion, they are both surprised when none occurs. As they near, they can make out a figure, surrounded by a globe of blue energy, standing on top of a small white and red craft. Keiichi immediately recognizes Urd as her white hair flows around her, as if blown by some invisible wind. It is then that they notice the orbs swirling and multiplying around her.

Suddenly, she starts to throw the orbs into the nebula, causing bright flashes and geysers of gas and dust to erupt. It reminds Keiichi of old World War II footage of British and American destroyers dropping depth charges into the ocean in an effort to destroy German U-boats.

Another beam strikes out in an attempt to stop her, but it dissipates against the energy barrier, seeming to cause the globes to multiply again. They watch as Urd adjusts her aim, sending multiple orbs down the same path that the beam came from. Multiple flashes are accompanies by an even brighter one.

"Did she get it?" inquires Dita as they turn to face where it came from. Her answer comes up negative as they watch the nebula seemingly heave upward. The gasses and dust seem to part, revealing a massive red and brown vessel. The main part of the ship appears to be a supersized version of the clamshell shaped carrier ships of the harvest fleet. Even now, it is belching forth mecha, which are starting to make their way to Urd's position.

Of top of the ship are three globes, each flashing from what can only be described as reddish lightning contained inside. Attached to each of the globes is an arm, the three of which meet together underneath a platform. On top of the platform is a huge dish, which is pointed at the _Nirvana_, and another globe with a large cannon barrel attached, pointed at Urd.

Both pilots stare, mouth agape at the monstrous ship. Dita finally breaks the silence. "I've never seen anything like it!" As they watch, they can see Urd start to alter the path of the projectiles she is sending to it. They begin to burst into the swarm of cube types that are approaching her.

The magnitude of the vessel was beyond Keiichi's comprehension. He snaps out of his reverie as a burst of static interrupts. Skuld's image appears on the communication screen again. "_Keiichi, NOW!"_ Shaking his head to clear is fears, he and Dita each have one thought.

_"Oh god, here it comes!"_

From the Vandread's back, two glowing, pointed spears swivel up and over its head and lock into the shoulder, pointed at the monstrosity before them.

_"Oh yes yes yes yes!"_

With a single thought from two minds, the spear begins to glow as it powers up. Starting from the shoulder, hexagonal patches begin to glow white, lighting up from the base to the tip. Suddenly, the huge turret on the harvest ship swivels towards them and fires. Instinctively, Keiichi dodges, and the beam barely misses the vandread. They quickly reorient it towards the ship as the glow reaches the end of the spears.

_"Oh yeah, here is comes! oymygodOhMyGodOhMyGODOHMYGO…!"_

In a bright flash, twin beams lance out towards the ship. As it happens, a warm, tingling sensations runs up Keiichi's spine.

_"Guh….."_

The beam slams down on top of the platform between the dish and the cannon, holing it through. A second later, the platform itself is engulfed in a huge explosion.

XXX

BC grits her teeth in pain as she holds a bandage over a burned section of her right arm. Her console had exploded while she was sitting in her chair when the shields had failed and allowed the beam to strike their ship. Still, they were lucky, most of the beam's energy had been absorbed and the damage was minimal. When the follow up shot that would have surely destroyed them failed to come, they all watched in amazed silence at the display of power that one of the goddesses was putting on below.

When their assailant was finally forced to emerge from the nebula, Bart had maneuvered the _Nirvana_ to face it head on. They watch as, to their delight, Vandread Dita destroys the weapons platform on the oversized carrier. Their cheering is interrupted by Bart.

"Hey! I have targeting scanners back up!" he cries out excitedly.

Mango stands at her station. "What are you waiting for, FIRE!"

XXX

Across the _Nirvana_, the edges expand to reveal hundreds of white crystal globes lining the ship. They all glow bright blue, then release a beam of energy. All of the beams lance out in different directions, then begin to curve towards their target, as if each one were individually controlled.

Their target being the enemy ship, Vandread Dita finds itself directly in the line of fire. A sense of panic wells up in Keiichi, but he is immediately calmed by an 'it will be alright' vibe he feels from Dita. As they near, the beams literally change direction and go around them, then continue on to their target. The vandread turns to see them impact, causing explosion after explosion. Suddenly, it swells on one side, then bursts in a huge fireball. A similar burst destroys a section on the opposite side, and the ship starts to break up and sink back into the nebula.

All around the battlefield, the harvester ships cease to function.

XXX

It took about an hour to mop up the remaining enemies. Not that the non-functional mechs were any threat, there were just so many. As the_ Nirvana's_ squadrons returned to their ships, Urd stayed behind. Skimming along the edge of the nebula, she had one thing on her mind, and it did not involve playing nice.

She stretches out her feelings and keys in on her target. Mentally, she calls out to her sister, who responds in kind. A few moments later, Skuld's wedge shaped fighter appears overhead and makes its way to her. It comes alongside and stops. A new energy barrier forms around them as Urd maneuvers Banpie to get as close to the cockpit as possible. After a moment, it opens. Skuld stands and takes off her helmet, her raven colored hair falling down to her shoulders.

A lot has indeed changed in four hundred years. As they were expecting due to the preview from before, she has grown into a beautiful goddess, rivaling Belldandy in many respects. She is now taller as well, almost as tall as the oldest of the Norns. She stands and gets out of the cockpit as the silver haired goddess approaches. Urd hovers over the craft and jumps down onto the wing, then walks over to where Skuld is standing and gives her a quick hug.

"You look good, Sis!" comments Skuld with a smile as they walk over and sit down on the end of the wing.

"So do you," replies Urd. "I heard you passed the first class exam, congratulations."

Skuld beams at Urd, flashing a big toothy grin. "Yep!"

An uncomfortable silence then settles over the sisters. After a few moments, Urd is the one to break it. "So, how is that ol' battleax Lind?"

"She's great," replies Skuld. "Her sense of humor has developed quite a bit these last couple centuries. But she's still all business when the time comes."

"That's cool."

Another silence. Skuld starts fidgeting a little as it lingers. "And how's Keiichi?" she asks finally.

"Well, it was touch and go there for a bit, but we got it straightened out," replies the older goddess. "It's nice knowing exactly how Mara did it."

Skuld smiles at the news. "That's awesome. He did quite well today too."

"Yeah"

Again, silence. This is frustrating Urd to no end. Finally, she slams her fist down. "Dammit Skuld, why don't you come out and ask it."

"Ask what?"

The silver haired goddess narrows her eyes at her youngest sister. "Ask 'how's Belldandy?'"

Skuld glares back as at her sister. "Why on earth would I want to do that?" Urd had obviously touched a nerve.

The older goddess angrily jumps up and floats around in front of the younger one. "By the Almighty, you are such a brat, and you have always been!"

"I am not!" yells Skuld in reply.

Urd floats closer; "You are too!" she yells, poking her right finger into her sisters chest. "I don't care that you are now a first class goddess with a special duty license, so help me if you don't go see your sister I'll….."

Skuld stands and smacks Urd's hand away. "And why the hell should I?!" she replies incredulously. She folds her arms across her chest and turns away. "She got her happily ever after, I didn't. I had to watch Sentaro die and was then expected to just move on." She looks back over her shoulder at Urd, who could see the sadness and anger in her eyes. "She didn't."

"God, for a grown up, you still act like such a child!" Urd floats closer to Skuld, who again looks away. "You don't see it, do you. You were SO jealous of Keiichi back then because you were afraid of losing her. Now you have lost her because you are jealous of her!"

Skuld hunches her shoulders, but does not reply.

Urd raps Skuld on the back of the head with her palm. "Sometimes I just don't know what's rattling around in that brain of yours. I sure wish that Lind, Peorth, or even Noble Scarlet would pound some sense into that thick skull of yours. You have lost the brightest spot of your miserable life, you just can't see it because of some petty emotion." She grabs hold of Skuld's shoulder and spins her around to face her. "It wasn't Belldandy's fault what happened."

"But…."

Urd cuts her off before she can say anymore. "No, you listen to me. Sentaro was a special man, and we all loved him dearly. This universe has been a lesser place because of his absence. Direct your anger towards fate, heaven, or somewhere more constructive. But don't lay this down at your sister's feet!"

Urd's violet eyes bore into Skuld's. "Are you finished?" asks the youngest norn finally as a single tear streams down her face.

"No, but all I have to say is this: Don't contact me again until after you forgive Belldandy or tell me you are ready to reconcile with her." Urd reaches up and wipes the tear from Skuld's face. "The ball is in your court, my dear sister. I love you, but you need to take the blinders off and see what these emotions you have now are robbing you of. Unless that happens, I'm done with you."

The bronze goddess turns away from her sister and floats back over to Banpie and gets on. Skuld moves to follow. "But Urd….."

"Don't talk to me," snaps Urd as she grabs the handlebars. She then speeds off, leaving Skuld behind. As she leaves, she wipes the tears she had been holding back from her eyes.

* * *

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this. I had a hard time writting it as I wanted everything to be "just so". And I still got bashed over the head by my beta reader for being repetative on certain words. She was right, though. :)

In case anyone is wondering, Skuld's mecha is based on the VF-17 Nightmare from Macross 7. A little homage to her love of Manga. I call it a vanguard in here because, well, Meia really would not know what else to call it. And if you want to discuss Skuld's attitude towards Bell in this chapter, feel free to drop me a line. R&R please!


	14. Strict Interpretations

-14-

_**Flashback (CH06)**_

"_**I have some phone calls to make, can you two go look for Mara?"**_

_**"Of course we can!" pipes up Urd. She grabs Skuld by the shoulder and begins to lead her out the front door. "Come on, pipsqueak!"**_

_**"Hey!" replies Skuld indignantly. "I'm no pipsqueak! I'll have you know…"**_

_**Their bickering trails off as they round the house, leaving Belldandy to her thoughts. She sinks down on her knees and sobs softly for a moment. **_

**Oh Keiichi, I hope everything is ok!**

_**End Flashback**_

XXX

_In the present….._

As she sits there, the emptiness in Belldandy's heart nearly overwhelms her. When it comes to Keiichi Morisato, her nature and emotions are constantly at war. They share a deep, spiritual connection that, even under the influence, can override her normal tendencies in favor of him. There are alien emotions, like jealousy, that she experiences. They passed through the Judgment Gate in spite of the all the dangers it presented them. She chose him over the entire universe.

And now he is gone.

But is it temporary or permanent? It all depends on the wish and how it might be interpreted. If Hibiki had been a little more or less specific in his wording, it could very well have changed the result of the wish altogether. "_I wish to get away from these women!"_ Mara gave the boy exactly what he asked for, with a little bonus on top of that for herself. He was away from the women on that ship, but the intent was probably to be away from all women. Indeed, the disappointment and anger she felt from him when he saw the goddesses when he woke up was palpable. It did not help that Skuld had promptly blown him up with one of her bombs.

Belldandy had washed his clothes and fed him in order to reestablish some trust. Despite having to reign in her older sister, he opened up enough to tell them the circumstances around the wish that he had made. On the face of it, it seemed like there was very little wiggle room, so she began to mentally prepare herself to wait the centuries it would take for him to reappear.

But that did not mean there is nothing she can do in the interim to reverse the situation. She was determined to do whatever was possible. She stands and walks over to the phone and picks up the receiver. As she holds it to her ear, she starts dialing the number to heaven. After a few rings, it clicks over.

"_You have reached the Yggdrasil Support Center, all lines are currently busy, please hold for the next available operator."_

Bell's heart nearly drops out of her chest upon hearing the robotic voice of the recording. It was just like calling the emergency number for emergency services and getting put on hold. She frets for a moment, contemplating just going there in person, as it might be faster.

Just as she was starting to get really antsy, the phone clicks over again, and a live voice comes on the line. _"Hello! Thank you for calling the Yggdrasil Assistance Center, my name is Ingaberg. Can I please have your name and title please?"_

"This is Belldandy, Goddess First Class, Second Category, Unlimited," she replies. "I have a serious issue and I need to speak to one of the system admins immediately."

"_I'm sorry to hear about your issue, I would like to do anything I can to resolve it for you, can you please describe it for me?"_

Belldandy lets out an exasperated sigh. It was obvious that the operator was following a script. There was no time for this. "Ingaberg, I apologize, but I really cannot. I need to speak directly to one of the system administrators immediately."

_"Miss Belldandy, I apologize that you are in such distress. If you could please explain to me your issue, I can get you the help that is appropriate for your situation."_

The blue-eyed goddess' grip on the phone tightens as her frustration mounts. She understands that Ingaberg was only doing her job, but Belldandy's situation was not something that this goddess could address. "I'm so sorry to be like this, but you need to understand that this is about Keiichi Morisato, who Heaven and Niflheim owe a great debt." She pauses for effect, then continues. "I am a close, personal friend of you supervisor, and I would not like to have to explain to her why his issue was delayed because someone failed to escalate it in a timely manner."

Silence greets Bell as she bites her lip and waits impatiently for a response. She hates being rude and threatening people, but this is Keiichi she is talking about. All bets are off. _"Please stand by," _says Ingaberg after a few tense moments. A few clicks on the line precedes a new voice.

"_Yggdrasil admin office, this is Chrono."_

"Oh Chrono, thank the Almighty!" exclaims Belldandy, relief and hope flooding over her.

_"Hey Bell!"_ replies the blonde administrator. _"What's going on?"_

Belldandy explains the events of the day so far, then waits expectedly as Chrono digests the information. "_Yeah, this sounds pretty serious,"_ comments the sysadmin after few moments. _"Have you heard back from Urd and Skuld yet?"_

"No, but they have only been gone for an hour," replies Bell. "I don't expect them back for a while."

"_You're probably right. Let me take a look in the system to see what it says." _

Belldandy leans against the phone stand as Chrono taps away on the other end of the line. Next to Urd and Skuld, the valkyrie candidate is the best system administrator in heaven. When she earns her wings, there will be some pretty big shoes to fill.

_"Hrm, this is odd,"_ says the sysadmin after a few minutes. _"His record is suspended. I don't know what it means, I've only seen it on a mortal one other time." _

"On who?" inquires Belldandy.

"_I don't know who he is, but I heard he is some kind of doctor." _Chrono pauses and more tapping is heard over the line. _"This is interesting, he is actually an approved time traveler!" _

Bell's spirits raise a little as she hears this. "Is there any way to get in contact with him for assistance?"

_"I'm afraid not, the only time we could contact him is if he came into our timeframe, and we have no way of predicting when or where that will be."_ Chrono sighs. _"I just checked and there is no record of this wish, either."_

"Well, that would make sense since it is a demonic wish," replies Belldandy.

_"This is true," _muses the sysadmin. _"Buuuuut, I do have a contact with one of the Nihdogg sysadmins who owes me one, maybe I can get some info on it from him!" _

"Would you do that?" exclaims Bell excitedly.

_"Absolutely, give me a half hour or so, I will call you back when I know more." _

"Oh thank you! You don't know what this means to me!" Bell smiles as she puts the phone back on the receiver. Chrono was a resourceful goddess, Belldandy had the utmost confidence in her. She knew it was a longshot going in, but the blonde goddess' out of the box thinking might get them somewhere.

The blue eyed goddess stands and stares at the phone for a few minutes, then reaches for it again. Picking it up, she brings it to her chest and contemplates whether or not to make the next call. Biting her lip, she brings the phone to her ear and begins to dial. After a few rings, someone picks up. "Hello, I would like to speak to The Almighty please. This is his daughter, Belldandy."

XXX

Slam!

There is an unusual sound emanating from the Morisato kitchen.

Bang!

Someone is washing dishes, but they are not being very careful about it.

Crash!

The sound of a plate breaking on the floor echoes through the house. It had been an hour since Belldandy's call with her father ended. Not surprisingly, he elected to stay out of it, despite her pleading with him to intervene.

In an attempt to redirect her frustration, the blue eyed goddess decided to clean up the mess from the breakfast that she had served to Hibiki and her sisters earlier. Uncharacteristically, she is letting her anger show as she cleans, and some of the dishes have paid the price. Belldandy lets out a loud sob as she stands over what was left of the latest victim. Instead of neatly stacking it on top of the other plates, it had been tossed at the stack and missed.

To add to her frustration, Chrono has not called back yet.

Quickly, Bell regains her composure and chants a spell to repair the plate. She picks it up and places it on the stack and finishes the rest of the cleaning. She then steps out the back door for a breath of fresh air.

As she basks in the glow of the afternoon sun, it occurs to Belldandy that she should check on Hibiki as a way of distracting herself from her mood. He has been gone for quite a while now. Being that he is in Tamyia and Otaki's company, it would probably be a good idea to peek in, anyway. She jumps up to the top of the nearest power pole and scans the area. It does not take her long to detect the unique properties of his aura in the direction of the Nekomi Tech campus.

A few minutes later, the blue eyed goddess alights on top of a power pole overlooking the auto club's garage. She immediately sees Hibiki intently going about the business of dismantling the engine of a motorcycle, and smiles to herself. There was no one else around. This was typical of the auto club leaders: getting someone else to do the dirty work. Hibiki apparently does not seem to mind, he is engrossed in his work.

Satisfied that everything is alright, Balldandy is about to leave when she notices someone approaching. After a few moments, she recognizes Keiichi's sister Megumi. She giggles a little as Megumi startles Hibiki, sending him scrambling away from her as if she were a tiger about to pounce on him. It wasn't that the brown haired girl was trying to scare him like that, but she certainly had not made her presence known until the very last minute. Wanting to get a closer look, Belldandy jumps over to the roof of the garage, using her magic to soundlessly land so as to not disturb what was happening below.

The blue eyed goddess sits and makes herself comfortable as she watches them begin to work on the bike together. She could tell from the light greens swirling in Megumi's aura that the girl was attracted to Hibiki. His aura, though, told a different story. There were greens in it, but they were more muted than hers. They were blended in with some tans indicating he was apprehensive about the situation, but definitely interested. After a while, Bell hears Megumi suggest they go somewhere to eat, to which he agrees. When they get up to leave, she follows.

XXX

At the temple, Urd and Skuld return from their trip to Mara's lair. They had been gone quite a bit longer than expected, causing the elder goddess some worry over the middle norn. When they had left, she could tell Belldandy was in a fragile state.

As she steps up onto the porch, she glances back at Skuld. The youngest sister had angrily reminded her several times since they had left that the Mara they were interrogating was the wrong one. Urd was halfway hoping that they might burn into the demon's mind not to do anything like this in the future. Nothing had changed, though, so unless it was happening differently in some other plane of time, she had pretty much failed.

"Bell! We're back!" yells the bronze goddess as she opens the door.

"I'm in the tea room!" comes a reply from down the hall.

The phone rings as Urd steps across the threshold. "One, two, three, nose goes!" yells Skuld from behind. She turns and sees her youngest sister standing with a finger on her nose and her tongue sticking out.

"Hey! I didn't have time to react!" protests the elder goddess as the phone rings again.

Skuld steps up and muscles her way past Urd. "You know the rules. I'm going to get some ice cream."

As the phone rings again, Urd sighs, turns to it, and picks up the receiver. "Morisato residence, Urd speaking."

_"Urd, its Chrono, is Belldandy there, I need to speak with her immediately!"_

"Yeah, one second," she replies, then lowers the phone as she yells down the hall. "Hey Bell, phone call for you, its Chrono!"

"Please take a message!" is the reply.

Urd furrows her brow in confusion. It wasn't like Belldandy to not answer the phone when someone from heaven called. Then again, today was not the usual day. "I'm sorry Chrono," says the eldest norn. "She can't come to the phone right now, can I take a message?"

_"No, you need to go get her NOW!" _exclaims the Yggdrasil sysadmin.

Urd listens to Chrono as she relates what happened after Belldandy's call earlier. Her eyes go wide as the story finishes. Dropping the phone, she bolts down the hall. Something had not been exactly right about the voice the white haired norn had heard coming from the tea room. After what Chrono had just told her, she knew why. Throwing open the door, she frowns, immediately recognizing the occupant. "YOU!"

Hild, the CEO of Hell smiles sweetly at her daughter. "I thought you would never get here, dearest!"

XXX

For several hours, Belldandy continues to trail the pair around town. She feels a little guilty about following Megumi and Hibiki. They deserve some privacy, but she just can't seem to pull herself away from watching, finally understanding why Urd watched all those soap operas.

They had gone out to eat earlier, and were now downtown, peering into the shops along the roadway. She worries for a moment when they start holding hands. Forming a relationship in the present could prompt Hibiki to decide not to pursue a way to reverse the wish if something did spark between the two. If that happened, Keiichi would never be able to get back to where he belongs. A brief check of their auras calms her worries. While Megumi was still showing the signs of attraction, his was simply there, as if going with the flow.

After finishing their walk, they drive to Megumi's house. Bell frets about this turn of events, but is relieved when they emerge a couple of minutes later with a picnic basket. That again puts her in a sour mood, and she almost puts a stop to it then and takes Hibiki home. In the end, the blue eyed goddess decides that would not solve anything in regard to the current predicament. Belldandy stares longingly at the basket as Megumi attaches it to be back of her bike. It reminds her of the many picnics she and Keiichi had gone on. When they leave, she again follows.

As the sun sets, she finds herself standing on top of a light pole, overlooking an outcropping just above a beach several miles outside of Nekomi. The pair had been enjoying their picnic, and was now watching the last of one of the most mesmerizing displays of color she had seen in a long time. The only thing that would have made it better was for Keiichi to have been there with her. The sun finally disappears below the horizon, and a single tear streaks down her face.

Belldandy is broken out of her reverie by the sound of laughing. Her gaze is drawn down to see Hibiki and Megumi splashing around in the surf. She watches in interest as a change comes over the younger Morisato's aura. All day, it had indicated that the girl was attracted to the boy from the future. It had pretty much been unwavering since she had first seen him. Now there was something different. The greens darken and become more intense.

Then, in her mind, the unthinkable happens. They start to kiss. Hibiki's aura colors, also unchanged throughout the day, turn to match Megumi's. As they stand there in their embrace, the auras merge to the point that Belldandy cannot tell which is which. She becomes despondent and desperate, getting ready to rush in and pull them away from each other. He is their only real chance of getting Keiichi back. If only Megumi knew what has happened.

She stops herself. As much as the goddess wants to, she can't do anything about it. Hibiki is his own person, and if at all possible, Megumi must not know what happened. Another tear rolls down her check as she turns to leave.

Before she does so, a change catches her eye.

Looking back at the couple, she sees Hibiki's aura now has blues permeating the greens, as if something had suddenly made him sad. Megumi's, on the other hand, is a raging torrent of reds. Belldandy gasps in surprise as the young girl punches Hibiki, then violently shoves him into the surf, yells at him, and finally storms off towards her motorcycle. She freezes as the bike is wheeled underneath the light pole she is standing on. Megumi mounts it and peels out, leaving the bewildered Hibiki behind.

Belldandy watches the young girl leave, then jumps down to the ground. She turns to see Hibiki sitting on the rock ledge, facing the ocean.

"How long have you been following us?" inquires the dejected boy as she approaches.

"Long enough," she replies in a soothing voice as she stops behind him. Belldandy could tell by the swirling blues and greens of his aura that he was conflicted. After a long, uncomfortable pause, she realizes something. "There's someone else at home, isn't there."

Hibiki's shoulders tense, as if the admission were painful to him. "Yeah," he finally bites out.

"Then we must find out a way to send you back to where you belong," replies Belldandy. She reaches out her hand to him. "Come, we must return."

Hibiki pauses for a second, then takes her hand and stands. He looks down the road and sees the lights of Nekomi off in the distance. "Looks like we have a long walk."

The blue eyed goddess simply smiles at him.

XXX

Urd paces nervously in the court yard in front of the temple. After getting the unpleasantries out of the way, Hild announced that she was waiting for Belldandy and the boy. When Urd pointed out that they were not there and impolitely suggested that she should leave, the silver haired demon clammed up and effectively made camp in the tea room.

It had been hours since she arrived, and not for the first time, Urd asked herself why the Daimakaicho has come. "For no good, that's for sure," she says to herself as she clenches her teeth in frustration. She pauses for a moment and looks back at the temple. She has elected to stay behind and make sure that the demon did not bring down the building, while Skuld had gone off to find Belldandy. The sun had gone down an hour ago, and she was getting more frustrated with each passing minute.

Then she sensesa familiar burst of energy emanating from inside the temple. This was immediately followed by screaming that was cut short by a muffled crash. She runs up to the front door and throws it open to the sound of someone swearing. As she starts down the hall, she sees the door to the bath open. Hibiki stumbles out, holding his head where he had somehow bumped it. He is followed by Belldandy, who is trying to tend to him.

"I am so sorry!" says the blue eyed goddess.

"Yeah, well, give me some more warning when you do that…..mirror…transport thingy!" grumbles the boy.

Before Belldandy can apologize again, Urd walks up and stares down her sister. "Where have you been?"

"I have been observing Hibiki and Megumi," replies the chestnut haired goddess. "Why do you ask?"

Urd pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Because we have a _guest_," she announces, spitting out the last word as if it were rotten sushi.

Belldandy, missing the malice in her sister's voice, visibly brightens. "Oh? Who is it?"

"Belldandy! Welcome back!" says Hild, announcing her presence to the group. She sidles up to them as if she has no care in the world.

"Lady Hild!" greets the blue eyed goddess with a smile. "It is so nice to see you!" She glances at her sister, then back to the demon mother. "Can I get you some tea?"

Hild dramatically looks away, putting the back of her wrist against her forehead. "Oh Belldandy, it pains me that my step-daughter is so much more polite to me than my natural daughter." She looks back at the trio before her. "But alas, I cannot stay for long. You know how it is, busy, busy, busy!"

"Good, there's the door," rumbles Urd as she points down the hall, her face turning crimson.

"Now now, Urdy, we mustn't point!" scolds the Daimakaicho as she reaches up and pinches her daughter's cheek. She then focuses on the boy standing next to the goddesses and walks up to him, tracing her finger along his jaw. "And this must be the cause of the current unpleasantness."

Hibiki recoils from her touch. "Who the hell are you?" he asks as the demon circles him.

"I _AM_ Hell, dearest."

Urd loudly clears her throat, then starts motioning everyone to the door. "Right then, I think we should take this outside."

XXX

At the mere suggestion of being able to put some distance between the new arrival and himself, Hibiki practically bolts for the door. He grimaces in fear as the demon, Hild, follows him closely. Recalling back to when Mara first appeared to him, he was scared but defiant with the woman. This one, with her wild, white hair adorned with all manner of clasps and jewelry, her purple dress that is split up the middle in the same way as Jura's, seemed to be evil incarnate. Something within tells him that this person is a predator.

As he races out into the courtyard, Hild continues to follow. The boy makes it a few feet past the stairs when she stops him and drapes her arms around him, smiling back at the two goddesses as they approach. In Hibiki's mind, the war between flight or fight has already been lost by both sides. The victor is sheer terror.

"Hild, please do not scare the poor boy," admonishes Belldandy as she steps down onto the sidewalk that leads out of the temple.

Hild steps away from Hibiki, covering her mouth in mock terror. "Oh my, you would think he had seen a demon!"

"What do you want, Hild?" bites out Urd with her hands on her hips.

"Why do you assume _I_ want _anything_?" replies her demon mother in mock surprise.

"Experience."

The white haired demon pouts as she struts past Hibiki again, causing him to visibly pale. "Shows what you know, I don't want anything," she replies innocently as she again circles the terrified boy. "Well, not for me, at least."

Internally, Hibiki feels like he is at war with himself. He had never shied away from a challenge in his life. Nor had he ever felt fear like this. It was as if something foreign was feeding it.

Hild gives him a wink that nearly freezes his soul.

"Fine!" yells Urd in frustration. "_Why_ are you here?"

The Daimakaicho smiles and looks at the two goddesses. "Well, you know, there was this pesky thing you helped me with recently," she says, crossing her arms across her chest. "And I guess as much as it pains me, that means that I owe you one." Her arms again find their way around Hibiki while not taking her eyes off the deities. "You know how I hate it when the scales are not balanced."

Belldandy visibly brightens as she realizes what is going on. "You are going to help us get Keiichi back?"

Hild stands to her full height, her smile taking on a more malicious glint. "Why yes," she purrs, raising her hand. "And I will start by doing THIS!"

Hibiki screams as the CEO of Hell smacks him on the back. To him, it feels as if she has reached into his soul, grabbed a part of it, and started to pull. Looking up, his eyes pleading for intervention, he sees the two goddess rush in to help, only to be thrown back by some invisible force. He writhes in pain and tries to shake the demon loose, to no avail. As he does so, his voice seems to split. Another voice, higher pitched than his own, separates from the cacophony.

A bright flash and the boy finds himself on the ground. Quickly, he rolls over onto his back and looks up at Hild, who is standing over him, holding a screaming blonde woman in a brown jumper up by the scruff of her neck.

"Mara?!" exclaims Urd.

The CEO of Hell holds up the demon as if she were a prize winning fish. She stares into the blonde's eyes, eliciting a cringe. "Yes, it's Mara, imagine that!" deadpans Hild as she casually tosses her catch aside.

Light headed and feeling as if a sudden weight was lifted from him, Hibiki staggers to his feet, but falters. As arms come up under his armpits, he looks to see the two goddesses helping him to stand. As he does so, he can feel that he is thinking more clearly than he has all day. His gaze shifts to the blonde demon lying on the ground. "She was in me the entire time?"

Ignoring the mortal, Mara quickly composes herself, flips over onto her knees, and bows to the Leader of Demon-kind. "L-L-L-Lady Hild!"

"And what, pray tell, are you doing here Mara, Demon First Class, Limited."

"I-I'm making sure that the wish is fulfilled," says Mara as she lifts her head and looks up at the Daimakaicho. She averts her gaze again as Hild drops to a knee in front of her and starts playing with the demon's hair.

"But the wish is already fulfilled, you don't need to be here," says the demon lord in a soothing voice. Her expression turns dangerous as she grabs a handful of the demon's lochs and forces her subordinate to meet her violet eyes. "Tell me Mara, what is it that made you come as well?" The blonde demon purses her lips, not willing to say anything.

"There's something about the wish!" cries Belldandy as she releases Hibiki and rushes forward. She drops to her hands and knees next to Hild, who releases her hold and steps away. "Please, you have to tell us!" she pleads.

Mara stands and looks down at the goddess. Hibiki can see a hard glint in her eye. A smirk appears on her face as if she were enjoying this. She spits on the ground. "Yeah, like I'm really going to do that."

"But why?" cries Belldandy as she rocks back on her knees, tears appearing under her eyes.

The demon narrows her eyes as she looks down upon the goddess before her, then snaps up and glares at Urd. "Because of her!" she cries, pointing an accusatory finger at the bronze goddess, who stares back with a 'who me?' look on her face. "Don't give me that, you know what you just did to my present self. Don't think I forgave and forgot."

"Oh yes, Urdy," chimes Hild. "You put on quite the display back there. I was _quite_ impressed. Almost made me forget you are a goddess!"

Urd glares are her mother as Belldandy rushes to her and grabs hold of her arms. "Sister! We have to go to Mara, you need to make this right!" she pleads.

Before the bronze goddess can respond, Mara starts cackling maniacally. "Oh we're way beyond that already!" she screams. "I've been waiting for four hundred years for this chance, and there is nothing you goddesses can do about it!"

As Hibiki watches, Belldandy appears to lose all hope. She starts sobbing uncontrollably while her sister pulls her into a tight hug. _If there were only something I could do!_ He thinks back to his first encounter with the demon. Then it hits him. There is something about the wish that is not right.

Hild sighs dramatically as the demon continues to gloat. "Geez Mara, talk about holding a grudge!"

Mara stares incredulously at the past version of her boss. "Its not a grudge! Its redemption!" she cries, pleading for understanding. "Because of those goddesses, my powers were suspended. I got them back on a limited basis just 100 years ago. But my humiliation continued because I was put on the help lines. The FLIPPING HELP LINES!" She looks over at the spiky haired boy with an evil glint in her eye. "When this moron made his wish AND let me specify who I could apply the cost to, I saw my chance and acted. When I get back, I will surely become unlimited again!"

Hibiki cringes at being called a moron and returns the demon's stare with equal malice. _Dammit, if only I could remember, I'd show you!_

"Or you might get demoted to second class for this," replies Hild non-chalantly.

"What? No way! Only Hild of my time can do that!" cries Mara, suddenly on the defensive. "And you don't see the big picture!" she continues as she gestures Urd and Belldandy. "These goddesses and that mortal they were with would have been a thorn in your side again. I've just done you a huge favor!"

The Daimakaicho sighs heavily. "Well, that very well may be Mara, but your timing is lousy." She sidles up to the blonde demon and runs a finger along her cheekbone, causing her subject to stiffen. "So tell me, just what exactly was his wish, hmmm?"

Mara pulls away and again looks over to Hibiki. "_I wish to get away from these women!"_ she replies in a sing-song voice while shaking her hips. She straightens and steps up to the boy and bends down, coming almost nose to nose with him. "Such a self serving wish," she says, then steps away and continues to mock him. "Boo-hoo! Those women pick on me. Boo-hoo, one of them spends too much time with me."

Gritting his teeth as the mocking continues, he glances over at Belldandy. She appears to have completely broken down in her sister's arms. His heart goes out to her as he was starting to have similar feelings about not being able to see that idiot red-head again. He just wished he could remember what it was about the wish that was missing.

And then, he did remember. "Wait," he says.

But no one hears him. Instead, Mara keeps gloating. "And now I have fixed everything. With that stupid, annoying Keiichi out of the picture, you will have to return to heaven….."

"Wait!" he says again, trying to get anyone's attention.

Mara continues, "And with you goddesses out of the picture…"

"SILENCE!" cries out Belldandy, using her command spell. The two demons, the boy, and her sister, who all covered their ears reflexively when she spoke, stare back at her. "I believe Mr. Tokia has something he wants to share with us," says the blue eyed goddess in a normal tone with a little hope in her voice.

Everyone turns their attention to the boy as he clears his throat. "That was not the entire wish."

"Eh?" says Mara, now looking as if she were seconds away from being run over by a train.

"The correctwording of the _entire_ wish was….." he pauses and looks the blonde demon in the eye, letting her know that he had beaten her. "I wish to get away from these women, _for a while!_"

"Bingo!" exclaims Hild as she claps her hands. She then locks the demon in a menacing stare. "Oh Mara, Demon _Second _Class, once again, your ingenuity is only matched by your stupidity." As she finishes, she snaps her fingers and a CD appears in her hand. Before anyone can react, she throws it at Mara. As it hits her, she is enveloped in a swirling purple vortex that emanates from the disk. Her body contorts and is stretched as she is sucked in. In seconds, it's over. She did not have time to scream.

Belldandy looks expectantly at Hild. "Does this mean….."

Hild waves her hand to silence her, then steps over and picks up the CD and tucks it into her dress above he left breast. "Yes. Hibiki only needs to decide when he wants to go back, and it will happen."

Belldandy rushes up and throws her arms around the demoness and hugs her tightly. "Your welcome sweety," says Hild as she returns the hug. She then pushes the goddess to arms length and looks her in the eyes. "But just so you remember. I did this only because of the help you gave me." Her smile becomes more serious. "We are even now."

"I understand."

XXX

_In the future….._

Onboard the _Nirvana_, Belldandy smiles as she remembers the events from four hundred years ago. Hibiki had returned to his time. Keiichi returned to her. Together they had lived happily, through tough times and hard times. Eventually, it came to an end. What followed was a deep dark sadness that nearly consumed her. Yet there was always the prospect of seeing him again, and that kept her going. As soon as his presence had returned to this plane, she rushed to him.

When she first laid eyes on him for the first time in all those years, all the feelings of loss and loneliness were swept aside. He was finally here, he could finally be with her again. Her heart, locked up for so many years, was released. She hugged him. She kissed him. She protected him. She held on to him. Looking back, perhaps she had smothered him.

Even though her heart was telling her it was so right, it all had somehow felt, wrong. She puzzled over this before coming to a sad realization. This was not her Keiichi. He belonged to her younger self. As much as she may have wanted to, she could not change that.

When Keiichi returned from the battle, he quite literally passed out from exhaustion as soon as the cockpit to the vanguard opened. It had caused Belldandy a moment of worry, but Dita assured her that it was normal for Hibiki to do this as well. The redhead was nice enough to offer up her own room for the pair to rest in, and had assisted them in transferring him there.

The chestnut haired goddess smiled as she looked down at her lover from the past. Kneeling on the lone bed in the room with his head in her lap, she stroked his unkept hair as he slept. She could tell it was getting close, having already felt the familiar tell tale beginnings of the magic that had sent Hibiki back to this time so long ago. As the power began to intensify and focus, she shook him out of his slumber.

"Keiichi, wake up, its time," she whispers into his ear. A feint glow was already starting to emanate from the exposed parts of his body.

His eyes open and he looks up at her, flashing that winning smile that always melted her heart. "Time for what, Bell?" he asks groggily.

She smiles and strokes his hair again. "Time for you to go home."

"Home?"

The goddess only nods. It was gut-wrenching, seeing the love of her life once again leave her. But at least this would bring some manner of closure to this particular chapter of her life. She would still feel the sting of loss. But instead of letting it overwhelm her as it had done before, she would cherish her memories and live on. There was still much to be done.

As the glow of Keiichi's body intensifies, she leans down and kisses him tenderly on his lips. Leaning back, a single tear streaks down her cheek. He reaches up and wipes it away. "Please don't cry," he says.

"This is not a tear of sadness for me," she says with a smile. "It's a tear of joy that you are going back to where you belong. Please, go back to her and love her as you have always wished you could." She pauses for a second, trying to remain strong for him. The last thing she wanted for him to see as he left was a sad look.

"She has been waiting for you, Keiichi Morisato. Go to her and be bold."

With her last words, he disappears in a flash, and the room is thrust into darkness.

XXX

_In the present….._

Belldandy opens her eyes and greets a new day, groggily recalling the events from the previous evening. Hild came to them and was actually helpful. While her sister had doubts about the demon leader's motives at first, her intentions were true as she unraveled the wish that the future Mara granted Hibiki. She smiles, remembering once again how the wording of a wish was so important. In the end, that was what was needed to send the boy from the future back home.

Yet, Keiichi did not return immediately. Hild assured everyone that he would, eventually. That worried the goddess a lot and kept her up for most of the night. Sleep had finally taken her as the skies began to brighten slightly from the morning sun. Because of this, she has awakened an hour and a half later than normal. It is not like her to oversleep like this, but under the circumstances, she figures her sisters will forgive her for this small transgression. She begins to stretch out her arms and expand her senses. Everything seems to be in order.

Except for a presence in the room next to hers. Curious, she focuses on it and is greeted by warmth and familiarity. Without thinking, Belldandy throws the covers off and jumps up, dashing to the door and throwing it open. The blue eyed goddess almost flies to the door next to hers, and quickly slides it open. Seeing a form on the futon and recognizing its aura, she quickly pounces on it.

"Keiichi!" she cries out as she lands, using her magic to keep from crushing him. Keiichi lets out a startled yelp as she wraps her arms around him and nuzzles into the crux of his neck. She feels his arms slip around her as he returns the embrace. "I missed you so much!"

"I know Bell," he replies softly and squeezes her tightly. "I won't ever leave you again."

XXX

Keiichi lays there and holds his goddess with his eyes closed, reveling in the feeling of closeness. He saw the sadness in the eyes of the Bell he met in the future, and he pledged to himself that he would do what he could to make her happy. The best way to do that would be for him to stay by her side, always and forever, just as she had pledged to do the same when he made his original wish.

He hears something at the door to his room, and opens his eyes to see Urd standing there with a sly smile on her face. "I see you found your way back into our lives," teases the silver haired goddess. "I was just starting to get used to the kid."

"You know you can't live without me," he replies, returning her smile.

Skuld appears next to Urd, still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Is Keiichi ba…" She stops when she realizes that her older sister is lying on top of him. Her face contorts in rage. "Oh HECK no you PERVERT!" she exclaims as she reaches into her night shirt, producing a Skuld bomb. Keiichi tenses and prepares to scramble away as she rears back to throw it at him. However, Urd intercepts the youngest goddess' arm and twists it around, snatching the explosive from her hand.

"Oh no you don't, leave them alone," she scolds as she twists the arm she caught around behind the raven haired goddess' back, causing Skuld to let out a squeal of pain. "Now you tell him how glad you are to see him back."

At first, Skuld sticks her nose up in the air in defiance, causing Urd to apply additional pressure to the arm she has trapped behind the smaller girl. Finally, she relents. "OK! OK!" she cries and Urd lets up on the pressure, still maintaining a hold on her arm. "I'm glad you're back," Skuld says, almost under her breath while staring at the floor between them. Keiichi can tell she sort of means it, but it doesn't matter to him.

"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" quips the silver haired goddess.

"You have no idea!" retorts Skuld. She looks at Keiichi and sticks out her tongue, then breaks out of Urd's grasp. "He's still a big doo-doo head!" she yells as she rushes down the hall.

"Oh, you're going to get it, Pee-Wee!" screams Urd, as she gives chase.

Keiichi lets out a sigh, both of relief and resignation at the destruction they will surely bring forth. "I thought I was going to have to make a break for it there for a second."

Belldandy tightens her hold on him as she lifts her head up and looks into his eyes. "I wasn't going to let you go anyway."

He gives her a big smile and squeezes her back. "Oh you weren't?"

"Nope, I am comfortable and I do not want to move from this spot," she replies sweetly.

Keiichi smiles. "What if she had thrown it?"

Belldandy puts her head down on his chest, still smiling. "I'm here, so you have nothing to worry about." She snuggles into him and sighs contentedly as they both drift off into a peaceful slumber.

XXX

It was almost eleven o'clock before they got up. Keiichi steps out of his room wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. Glancing around, he is relieved to see the damage from the sisters was not too bad. Belldandy slips past him, planting a kiss on his cheek as she goes by and heads to her own room to change out of her night clothes. She turns and glances at him with a smile as she closes the door.

A knock at the front door echoes through the house, prompting Keiichi to head towards the entrance. He peeks in the living room as he walks by and sees Urd and Skuld in front of the television, enraptured in some anime. He smiles and shakes his head. _I can't remember the last time they actually agreed on something to watch. _He grabs the knob and opens the door.

Standing on the front porch, Megumi looks pensively at her brother. "Hey Kei," she says in a somber tone, giving him a smile as she sees him.

Keiichi instantly recognizes her mood and switches into big brother mode. "Hey Meg, what's wrong?"

"Well, not sure if you knew, but I went out with your friend Hibiki yesterday," she replies with a touch of guilt in her voice.

Keiichi's eye twitches slightly. "And…..?"

His sister shifts her feet, as if she were embarrassed to say anything. She sighs slightly. "Well, I kind of beat him up a little last night when he told me that he liked someone else."

"Yeah, him and his….um….girlfriend were separated involuntarily," says Keiichi. It wasn't _exactly_ a lie, but he was stretching a little. "It was pretty hard on her….HIM…..him."

Megumi completely misses his slip. "So, do you know where he is?" she asks, looking up at him with hopeful eyes.

"No, I'm pretty sure he went back home."

"Oh," she says, clearly disappointed. "Could you do me a favor? Next time you see him, tell him I said I'm sorry."

Keiichi smiles. "Of course I can." It was an easy thing to agree to, he was pretty sure he was never going to get that chance.

Belldandy comes up from behind, drapes her arms over his shoulders and plants a kiss on his cheek. Looking up, she realizes Megumi is in front of them and smiles. "Megumi! So nice of you to come, I was just going to start breakfast!"

Instantly broken out of her melancholy feelings, her initially shocked reaction instantly gives way to a knowing smile. "You're just _now_ getting to breakfast?"

Belldandy and Keiichi share a meaningful look. "I guess we are, aren't we," agrees Keiichi. The goddess kisses his cheek again before she releases him and heads down the hall towards the kitchen, humming quietly to herself.

Megumi steps up and elbows her brother in the stomach. "It's about fracking time, Kei," she says with a mischievous glint.

The older Morisato rolls his eyes. "Nothing happened, Meg," he replies evenly but a little defensively as he rubs his abdomen where she hit him.

"Come on, you can tell you sister!" she pleads.

"We just slept together, nothing else, I swear!" insists Keiichi while shaking his head and crossing his heart.

"KEI!" screams Megumi in frustration as she closes the door behind her.

XXX

_In the future….._

The chestnut haired goddess steps out of Dita's room. She looks up and finds her sister staring at her with a worried expression on her face. "It is done, Urd."

The bronze skinned goddess looks her half-sister over critically. "And you are…ok with this?"

Belldandy stares at nothing in particular, reflecting on her feelings. "Yes," she says finally.

Urd lets out a huge sigh, as if she had been holding her breath for a long time. "Oh good! I didn't want to have to go through the same thing I did last time you lost him."

Belldandy focuses her sister. "It could not have been that bad," she says with a confused look.

Flicking a loch of white hair out of her face, Urd smiles at her naïve sibling. "You locked yourself in his room for three months and _never_ came out." She places her hands on Belldandy's shoulders. "I was forced to eat instant ramen. With ketchup, Bell. _KETCHUP!_"

"Oh my! I had no idea!"

The bronze goddess' hands slide down Belldandy's arms, and she squeezes them affectionately. "Of course you didn't, you were in mourning." The blue eyed goddess averts her gaze and an uncomfortable silence comes between the two. Urd looks over her sister and realizes something. "So what's different this time?"

Her sister pauses for a second, as if pondering her answer. "I am still sad," replies Belldandy as she looks up into her sister's eyes and smiles. "But I am also hopeful." She grabs hold of Urd's hand and starts to pull her down the hall towards the lift. "Come, we must say our goodbyes to our new friends, then I have something to show you."

XXX

The clacking of wood against metal echoed as Mango Vivian walks down the corridor towards the galley. It had been a while since she eaten with the crew. The elderly captain normally took her meals in her room or the conference room behind the bridge. But things were not normal at the moment. A key part of her crew was still missing and a stranger from the past with three deities helped them defeat a determined attack from the Harvest. Normally, after a hard fought battle, euphoria gripped the crew. But Hibiki's absence cast a pall over everything. _It's amazing how you only come to know how much you value something when it's gone_.

She recalls how the three men were treated when they first arrived. The girls were quite rough with them, to say the least. Laughing to herself, she remembers all the misconceptions the men and women had for each other. Hibiki actually thought that the ladies were going to eat his guts. She chuckles to herself as she remembered that she did nothing to correct the boy.

"Captain!"

Mango turns to see Meia come running up from behind. It is early morning, and the blue haired dread leader is already in her customary black and white jumper and rearing to go. Sighing internally, she can tell it was due to lack of sleep rather than being a nearly riser. "Good morning, Meia."

The girl hands Mango a data disk. "I completed the after action report from yesterday's battle."

The Captain sighs audibly this time. Sometimes the dread leader was a little too dedicated. "Did you stay up all night writing this?"

Meia bites her lip and finds something else interesting to look at. "Yes," she says finally, "I couldn't sleep."

The elderly woman thought as much. There was no doubt that the dread leader's sleeplessness had everything to do with the absence of one Hibiki Tokia. She wasn't the only one affected, Mango having spent some time during the night with another member of the crew that was afflicted with a similar malady. Of course, she understood why Dita would be affected. To see Meia similarly affected was quite enlightening, but not necessarily surprising.

She gave the younger woman a motherly smile and held out her free hand. "Care to join an old woman at breakfast?"

Before Meia can respond, there is a commotion from around the corner. Watching with interest, they are both startled to see Hibiki come running around the corner. He nearly runs them over as he passes. "C'mon, can you leave me alone for just a minute please?" he screams as he passes.

"But Mr. Alien, I missed you!" cries Dita as she rounds the corner in hot pursuit.

They both disappear around the corner, leaving the captain and the dread leader gobsmacked. After a moment, Meia recovers. "When did he…" she starts, but is interrupted by Mango.

"Well, looks like things are getting back to normal!"

XXX

To say that he had not mentally prepared himself to the eventuality of seeing the redhead again was to not know Hibiki Tokai. He knew that he wanted to see her again. He would not have made the decision to come back if he didn't. What he was NOT prepared for was for her to be in his face as soon as he opened his eyes. He recalled a comment from Duella as he was bolting from the room about how she basically camped there since he had disappeared. He immediately reverted back to his old ways and ran for cover. Old habits die hard.

Now that he has regained most of his faculties after the relapse, he is now leading her away from the prying eyes of the rest of the crew.

Making that wish made him the real idiot. That girl from the past, Megumi, inadvertently helped him to realize that. He was so glad that the solution to getting back was an easy one. That demon must have been causing him to forget that most important detail of the wish. He shudders to think what would have happened if she were not forcibly removed from him.

As the chase progresses, it becomes more follow the leader than a dash to safety. But he does not want her to know that, so he plays the part as he passes Meia and the Captain in the corridor. Down the way and to the left, then right they go, him professing his desire to get away, her calling for him to stop. He almost ends the chase prematurely when she tells him she will cook all his favorite foods, but he resists. He is on a mission.

Finally, the spiky haired boy rounds a corner and stops abruptly. It is as good a place as any. When the redhead follows, she nearly runs him over. After composing herself, she opens her mouth to say something, but he immediately shushes her by putting his finger to her lips. He immediately starts into the script that he's prepared for this, but the words fail him.

So he improvises. "Look," he starts. "I know that I have not been too appreciative of your help and all. I will say that I do appreciate it, a lot." He takes a deep breath before continuing. "And I know that I promised you that I would visit your room. I still plan to keep that promise, when I think the time is right. There is a lot that I learned from this experience, and I want to share it with you when I am ready."

His face turns a deep crimson as he takes a step closer. "For now, until I find my place, the proof of my existence, you will need to be happy with just this." He cups her cheek in his hand, leans in, and kisses her on the lips. Not the deep, tongue twisting kiss that Megumi gave him, but a short, sensuous one that told her everything without saying anything.

As he leans back, he can see that she is frozen in place, a mixture of surprise and ecstasy on her face. He smiles, happy with himself that he elicited that reaction. He thinks about heading back, but changes his mind. Days before, faced with a similar situation, he would have left for certain.

In the end, staying here, with her, was truly his Heart's Desire.


	15. Epilogue

Epilogue

Cloaked in an invisibility spell, the two goddesses watch the scene between Hibiki and Dita play out. "I always wondered what happened to them when he got back," muses Urd as the duo begins to walk away.

"This isn't one of your soap operas, dear sister," replies Belldandy with a touch of sarcasm and a smile.

The bronze goddess raises and eyebrow and returns the smile. "Why Belldandy! Doth my ear deceive me? Was that a joke?"

The blue eyed goddess winks at her sister and takes the lead as they begin to navigate the corridors. As they do so Urd's curiosity begins to war with itself. There were two questions she wanted answered. Finally, one wins out. "So, earlier, you mentioned that you were hopeful. What was that all about?"

Belldandy smiles and lets out what sounds like a happy sigh. "There are two reasons for this, one of which I will tell you, and one that I will show you."

_Oh goody, a two for one!_ Urd looks at her sister expectedly. "And those are…?"

"The first is that Keiichi, my Keiichi, is near," replies Belldandy without missing a step. The joy in her voice is unmistakable.

Urd stares at her, dumbfounded. He had been lost to her sister for so long, she worried that this experience may break her. She rounds on Belldandy and stops her. "Bell, how can you be sure that it wasn't some fix you got from the past Keiichi's presence here?"

Belldandy fixes her blue eyes on Urd's purple ones. "His spirit came to me in a dream. I could tell it was him."

The silver haired goddess stares deeply into Belldandy's eyes, searching for anything that would indicate her sister is finally cracking under the strain. The last time this happened involved spoons and various desserts. It was not a pretty sight. But she can see nothing of the sort. Instead, Belldandy is resolute and steadfast.

"He showed me something wonderful," continues the blue eyed goddess as she points to something behind Urd. "And, it's right through those doors."

Urd stares at her sister, unable to discern if she is serious or if she has seriously lost it. In the end, the decision is made for her and Belldandy walks past and through the doors. She pauses, then shrugs, nothing else she can do but humor her and follow.

As the bronze goddess passes through the door, she finds herself in an immense chamber. Crystals hang from the ceiling like great stalagmites. The walkway she is on crosses over the top of an immense glowing ball. It pulses momentarily as she sees it. She then follows Belldandy, who is stopped halfway across, staring down at the immense orb.

"What is this?" she asks as she approaches.

Belldandy smiles and leans back, closing her eyes as if basking in the glow being produced from below. Tentatively, the bronze goddess opens herself up to it, and is nearly overwhelmed with what she feels. The sphere is alive, but not in the sense that it is living. More that it possesses the potential of all living things, past, present, and more importantly, future. She glances over to her sister who she can see is crying. Not in fear or sadness. Tears of joy.

_This is no energy source, it's a huge seal! _Urd opens herself further to it and gasps in surprise as the tendrils of an ancient consciousness reach out and touch her own.

"Gaia!"

XXX

In one of the many deserts on Taraak, a small house sits seemingly out in the middle of nowhere. The resident, who is referred to by locals and Jin the Hermit, is better known by Hibiki Tokia as Grandpa. Unbeknownst to everyone, save a select few in the ruling class, he is neither there by random happenstance or a hermit. He is the guardian for the first generation of colonists, who to this day, remain in cryostasis safely underground directly beneath his cottage.

As part of his job as caretaker of the many thousands of sleeping people, he is to check each one to ensure that they remain in deep sleep. In all the years he has been on the job, there had been only one failure; when the infant Hibiki mysteriously awakened fourteen years ago.

Today, like most days, he is underground, inspecting the tubes that contain their precious cargo. Over the years, he developed a system where he would check fifty containers a day. Doing so meant that it would take almost two years before he would complete his sweeps. Fortunately, the system was stable enough that increasing the frequency of the checks would be overkill.

On today's inspection, he stops at number forty-nine. He puzzles momentarily on where the last container was before he remembered. This one was special. He rounds the corner and steps up to a door with no window. Next to it, the station that would typically sit next to the cryo-tubes sits alone. He checks over the screen, noting to himself that everything is in the green, just as he expected. He then turns to the door. In the center is a sign.

**WARNING!**

**No mirrors, terminal screens, or hot beverages beyond this point!**

Regardless of the special nature of this person, he still must physically see that all the seals on the unit itself are undamaged. He has none of these objects in question, so he enters a code into the keypad. The locks on the door hiss as they disengage. The door slides open, revealing another corridor. Lights flicker on, illuminating the passageway leading to unit in question. When he arrives, he completes the final checks. He has always wondered why this person was set aside in this special location and why all the odd precautions were taken. As he did so many times in the past, he makes a mental note to ask the person when he wakes up. He leans in and looks through the stasis tube's portal and takes a look at the person within. Like all the others, he is sleeping, blissfully unaware of the world surrounding him.

Before he leaves, Jin glances below the portal at the name tag on the cover.

**MORISATO, KEIICHI**

* * *

A/N: FINISHED! I want to pass many thanks to those of you who have suffered all the way through this. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any comments, suggestions, etc.

I do plan to do some revisions. The biggest things that I want to do is combine some of the chapters where it makes sense.

I want to send out a special shout out to Nena Camadera again, for suffering through my writting as my Beta reader. I also want to give a shout out to Davner. Have not actually spoke to the man, but reading his work is what inspired me to start writing. I channeled him somewhat in my story, as I sprinkled in all kinds of obscure movie references. Some day I may go back and actually count them all. I really hope he comes back and at least finishes Haleos.


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